UK carrier O2 creates AI grandmother Daisy to waste scammers’ time [Video]

UK mobile carrier O2 has created Daisy, an AI grandmother designed to waste the time of phone scammers by keeping them on the line as long as possible.

Anyone can report a scam call or message by texting their number to 7722, where it will be checked and then added to the list of targets …

The longer you can keep a scammer on the line, the fewer innocent victims they will be able to call.

The idea of using a bot to do this automatically was popularized by Lenny, a voice chatbot which picks one of sixteen pre-recorded audio clips of what appears to be a slow-speaking and technologically-challenged elderly man. Lenny has also been used as a tool against unsolicited telemarketing calls.

Despite the limited number of responses offered, Lenny has sometimes succeeded in keeping unwanted callers on the line for an hour or more.

O2 has now created its own AI-powered version, known as Daisy.

O2 has created human-like Daisy, an AI ‘Granny’ to answer calls in real time from fraudsters, keeping them on the phone and away from customers for as long as possible.

With Daisy revealing how you’re not always speaking to the person you think you are, O2 is urging customers to remain vigilant, leave ‘scambaiting’ to the AI experts and report suspected fraudulent calls and texts for free to 7726

You can watch Daisy in action below.

Image: O2