O2 introduces ‘AI Granny’ to beat scammers at their own game

Telephone scammers may well have met their match, as telephone network O2 has unveiled an AI bot designed to waste their time.

‘Daisy’ is an ‘AI granny’ developed by O2 to send out all the signals to telephone scammers that they may have an easy victim on the line. All is not what it seems, however, as Daisy is a hyper-realistic chatbot able to keep scammers talking – and therefore unable to bother its real customers.

By pairing cutting-edge technology with scam-baiter content, O2 has created a foil that will make phone fraudsters think they’ve found a perfect target. What they don’t realise, O2 claims, is that Daisy is “beating them at their own horrible game”.

The AI chatbot can drag out conversations with potential scammers at length. What’s more, the bot needs no further input from its creators but can react and respond to scammers independently and in real time.

To ensure Daisy was primed with all the scam-beating tricks of the trade, O2 teamed up with YouTube sensation Jim Browning – who has amassed billions of views from videos where he tracks down and identifies scammers whilst they’re still on the phone.

Daisy has already been put through her paces – with a trial run finding people were unable to tell the difference between the chatbot and a real person. Then, when let loose on real scammers, Daisy kept one on the line for 40 minutes before they finally gave up.

O2 developed Daisy after discovering that 71% of Brits would love to get their own back on scammers. However, 53% said they simply don’t have the time to bait callers themselves.

Despite Daisy’s early successes, O2 has used the roll out of its timewaster bot to remind consumers that it’s imperative they remain vigilant. Director of Fraud at Virgin Media O2, Murray Mackenzie, said: “No matter how persuasive someone on the other end of the phone may be, they aren’t always who you think they are.

“With scammers operating fulltime call centres specifically to target Brits, we’re urging everyone to remain vigilant and help play their part in stopping fraud.”