AI 'Granny' Daisy: O2's Innovative Approach to Combating Phone Scams

A phone company developed an AI 'granny' to beat scammers at their own game

A screenshot of the AI-generated "Daisy" -- a new program launched by British phone company O2 to combat phone scams. Screenshot captured by NPR/O2 hide caption British mobile phone company O2 has unveiled a new creation, Daisy, a chit-chat and kitty-cat loving artificial intelligence "granny" who talks to scammers to keep them away from real people. "Hello, scammers. I'm your worst nightmare," Daisy says by way of introduction to would-be ne'er-do-wells. In the video introduction, featuring former Love Island contestant and scam victim Amy Hart, scammers are heard feeling much of the same frustrations they put their victims through as Daisy breezily yammers on about her kitten, Fluffy, and her inability to follow the scammers' instructions. "I think your profession is bothering people, right?" one defeated scammer tells Daisy after being given the runaround. "It's nearly been an hour! For the love of [bleep]," another yells in frustration. But for Daisy, time couldn't be less of a concern. "While they're busy talking to me, they can't be scamming you. And let's face it, dear, I've got all the time in the world," she says. O2, the company behind the scam-baiting granny, said the AI technology can keep scammers on the phone for 40 minutes at a time. Daisy was trained with the help of YouTuber and software engineer Jim Browning, who has made an online career exposing scammers to his community of 4.4 million subscribers. In order to bait scammers into time-wasting calls, the company utilized the practice of "number seeding," which put the AI granny's number on lists used by scammers to find their victims. The granny gimmick's goal is twofold: to keep scammers away from real people and to raise awareness about the dangers of risky phone hoaxes. "We're committed to playing our part in stopping the scammers, investing in everything from firewall technology to block out scam texts to AI-powered spam call detection to keep our customers safe," Murray Mackenzie, the company's director of fraud, said in a statement. "But crucially, Daisy is also a reminder that no matter how persuasive someone on the other end of the phone may be, they aren't always who you think they are."

'I've Got All the Time in the World': AI Grandma Thwarts Scammers By Answering Their Calls

Since debuting last month, Daisy has answered over 1,000 calls and kept scammers on the line for up to 40 minutes at a time. British phone company Virgin Media O2 has a new way to trick scammers at their own game: Have an AI-generated grandmother named Daisy answer the phone. A conversation with Daisy means hearing her talk at length about her passion for knitting or her grandchildren. With no prompting, Daisy can adapt to conversations and even provide fake personal information if scammers request it, per NPR. Daisy may sound like a grandmother, but she's actually an AI large language model that takes in a fraudster's voice, translates it to text, finds an appropriate response based on a database of training data, and "speaks" that response -- all within seconds. She was trained with the help of Jim Browning, a YouTuber with over four million subscribers who fights against online scams. Related: Nearly Half of Americans Think They Could Be Duped By AI. Here's What They're Worried About. O2 says that Daisy has had calls that last up to 40 minutes, where she goes back and forth with a fraudster. There's a point to all of this conversation: While Daisy chatters away on long phone calls, she's taking up time that bad actors could be using to talk to real people. "While they're busy talking to me, they can't be scamming you," Daisy says in a promotional video. "And let's face it dear: I've got all the time in the world." O2 named Daisy "Head of Scammer Relations" when introducing it last month and says that the chatbot serves as a reminder of the lengths bad actors will go to carry out their aims. The AI is built into the phone service. "But crucially, Daisy is also a reminder that no matter how persuasive someone on the other end of the phone may be, they aren't always who you think they are," Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud at Virgin Media O2, stated in a press release. Related: How Generative AI Is Fueling the Rise of Fake News and Online Fraud After talking to Daisy in the promotional video, one scammer angrily said, "I think your profession is bothering people, right?" In a separate instance, another frustratedly exclaimed, "It's nearly been an hour!" Since her debut, Daisy has answered more than 1,000 calls, per CBS. There's no American equivalent to Daisy yet, though spam calls are a problem in the United States too. According to True Caller, in the period between December 1, 2023 and November 30, 2024, Americans spent 272 million hours answering spam calls. Each American receives an average of around nine spam calls per month.