OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Warns of Imminent AI Voice Fraud Crisis in Banking

OpenAI's Sam Altman warns of AI voice fraud crisis in banking

WASHINGTON (AP) -- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned the financial industry of a "significant impending fraud crisis" because of the ability of artificial intelligence tools to impersonate a person's voice to bypass security checks and move money. Altman spoke at a Federal Reserve conference Tuesday in Washington. "A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept the voiceprint as authentication," Altman said. "That is a crazy thing to still be doing. AI has fully defeated that." Voiceprinting as an identification for wealthy bank clients grew popular more than a decade ago, with customers typically asked to utter a challenge phrase into the phone to access their accounts. But now AI voice clones, and eventually video clones, can impersonate people in a way that Altman said is increasingly "indistinguishable from reality" and will require new methods for verification. "That might be something we can think about partnering on," said Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, the central bank's top financial regulator, who was hosting the discussion with Altman.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warns of AI "fraud crisis" targeting consumer accounts

Why it matters: Altman said society is unprepared for how quickly the technology is evolving and called for an overhaul of how consumers get into personal accounts. What they're saying: "I am very nervous that we have an impending, significant fraud crisis," Altman told some of the nation's top Wall Street executives and economic policymakers Tuesday. * Altman, who spoke at a banking regulatory conference hosted by the Federal Reserve, said that AI has "fully defeated" most of the ways that people authenticate who they are. * "Society has to deal with this problem more generally," Altman said on a panel moderated by the Fed's new Wall street cop, Michelle Bowman, who was elevated to the post by Trump earlier this year. State of play: "A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept the voice print as authentication for you to move a lot of money," Altman said. * "Other people actually have tried to sort of warn people, 'hey, just because we're not releasing the technology doesn't mean it doesn't exist,'" he said. * "Some bad actor is going to release it -- this is not a super difficult thing to do. This is coming very, very soon," Altman said, referring to efforts to fake authentication. The big picture: Altman is in Washington D.C. this week -- appearing at the Fed's mega-bank regulation conference headquarters and Capitol Hill -- to push the message that artificial intelligence will be a "democratic" good for America and its economy, Axios reported on Monday. * Altman's appearance comes one day before President Trump is scheduled to appear at an AI-focused summit. * The White House is also expected on Wednesday to release an "AI Action plan" that will outline a hand-off, pro-growth approach, Axios Pro scooped last week. What to watch: Some of the nation's financial institutions are wary about plunging headfirst into AI, with regulatory hurdles to get bespoke technology approved and the risk of a trillion-dollar error. The other side: Altman said he has been surprised by the amount of uptake from big banks.

OpenAI's Sam Altman warns of AI voice fraud crisis in banking

WASHINGTON (AP) -- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned the financial industry of a "significant impending fraud crisis" because of the ability of artificial intelligence tools to impersonate a person's voice to bypass security checks and move money. Altman spoke at a Federal Reserve conference Tuesday in Washington. "A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept the voiceprint as authentication," Altman said. "That is a crazy thing to still be doing. AI has fully defeated that." Voiceprinting as an identification for wealthy bank clients grew popular more than a decade ago, with customers typically asked to utter a challenge phrase into the phone to access their accounts. But now AI voice clones, and eventually video clones, can impersonate people in a way that Altman said is increasingly "indistinguishable from reality" and will require new methods for verification. "That might be something we can think about partnering on," said Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, the central bank's top financial regulator, who was hosting the discussion with Altman.

OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns of AI Voice Fraud Crisis in Banking

WASHINGTON (AP) -- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned the financial industry of a "significant impending fraud crisis" because of the ability of artificial intelligence tools to impersonate a person's voice to bypass security checks and move money. Altman spoke at a Federal Reserve conference Tuesday in Washington. "A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept the voiceprint as authentication," Altman said. "That is a crazy thing to still be doing. AI has fully defeated that." Voiceprinting as an identification for wealthy bank clients grew popular more than a decade ago, with customers typically asked to utter a challenge phrase into the phone to access their accounts. But now AI voice clones, and eventually video clones, can impersonate people in a way that Altman said is increasingly "indistinguishable from reality" and will require new methods for verification. "That might be something we can think about partnering on," said Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, the central bank's top financial regulator, who was hosting the discussion with Altman.

Here's What 'Terrifies' OpenAI's CEO About Financial Institutions Today: 'This Is a Huge Deal'

He also said a possible financial attack on the U.S. keeps him up at night. Sam Altman, the CEO of $300 billion AI startup OpenAI, is asking finance industry leaders to stay ahead of AI trends -- and to avoid voice authentication at all costs. At the Federal Reserve's Regulatory Capital Framework Conference on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Altman told a crowd of financial regulators and industry experts that "a thing that terrifies" him is banks that still accept voices to authenticate identity. AI voice cloning hoaxes can copy a person's voice in three seconds and use the cloned voice to empty bank accounts. "A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept a voice print as authentication for you to move a lot of money or do something else," Altman said at the event, per Business Insider. Related: I Called Klarna's New AI Hotline to Talk to the Company's 'CEO' -- Here's What Happened Altman said voice authentication was "a crazy thing to still be doing" and that AI has "fully defeated" many ways financial institutions currently confirm identity. He also warned that AI has the potential to cause a "significant impending fraud crisis," and predicted that institutions are going to have to transform the way they verify identity in response. "People are going to have to change the way they interact," Altman said. "They're going to have to change the way they verify. This is a huge deal." During a Q&A session at the Federal Reserve event, Altman was also asked about what keeps him up at night. He said a widespread financial crisis where an adversary uses AI to launch an attack on the U.S. The bad actor could "break into financial systems and take everyone's money," and there would be little we could do about it, Altman said. It would be difficult to uphold protective measures against an adversary with smarter AI, Altman explained. Related: Nearly Half of Americans Think They Could Be Duped By AI. Here's What They're Worried About. Altman's fears that AI could be misused in the wrong hands are echoed by financial leaders. According to a survey released in March by consulting firm Accenture, 80% of bank cybersecurity leaders state that AI allows bad actors to launch attacks faster than banks can respond. In other words, the leaders can't keep up with the rapid pace of AI scams targeting personal bank accounts. Consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to scams in 2024, a 25% increase from the previous year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. More people fell for scams and lost money to them last year, with $2.95 billion lost to imposter scams. Still, some top executives at OpenAI are convinced it has the power to do a lot of good, from eradicating diseases to helping support equal pay initiatives.

OpenAI's Sam Altman warns of AI voice fraud crisis in banking

WASHINGTON -- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned the financial industry of a "significant impending fraud crisis" because of the ability of artificial intelligence tools to impersonate a person's voice to bypass security checks and move money. Altman spoke at a Federal Reserve conference Tuesday in Washington. "A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept the voiceprint as authentication," Altman said. "That is a crazy thing to still be doing. AI has fully defeated that." Voiceprinting as an identification for wealthy bank clients grew popular more than a decade ago, with customers typically asked to utter a challenge phrase into the phone to access their accounts. But now AI voice clones, and eventually video clones, can impersonate people in a way that Altman said is increasingly "indistinguishable from reality" and will require new methods for verification. "That might be something we can think about partnering on," said Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, the central bank's top financial regulator, who was hosting the discussion with Altman.