Bot or Not?

What’s on offer?

Podcast exploring the challenges of identifying deepfake AI Bot activity and associated security risks featuring an illustrative case study of a £20m deepfake con from industry.

What’s it about?

How good are you at recognising real humans from artificial intelligence? Is that text from your doting aunt, or a digital agent? What about those voice notes – friend or fraudster? And what about that video call? Are those the top bosses on your screen… or deepfake bots? Are you sure?

Would you stake £20 million and maybe even your whole career on it?

In this podcast episode, we explore a state-of-the-art con that targeted the engineering giant, Arup. Using artificial impostors masquerading as senior Arup bosses, over the course of a week, criminals escaped HK$120 million (£20 million), and left behind some of the biggest questions we face today.

In a world of increasingly convincing generative AI, should we be using voices and faces to identify people? Are any biometrics safe, or are such ideas now as outdated as the written signature? Whatever our thoughts on generative AI, it is reshaping our digital lives, and this groundbreaking case may give us the first hint of where this future is going to take us next.

Who’s leading the event?

Professor Claire Hardaker, Lancaster University

Open to

This event is suitable for all except very young children

Of particular interest to

Of particular interest to anyone wanting to understand more about how generative AI is re-shaping our digital lives and the implications of this for identity security.

Event Booking details

Details on how to access the podcast will be published here soon

Scheduling information

The Podcast will be launched at the start of the Festival of Social Science on 19th October and will be available throughout the festival and beyond.