AI-assisted job fraud is spiking
July 19, 2024
Good morning, and happy Friday. We’ve talked before about AI-powered fraud, but today we’re talking about a specific subset of that wide-ranging genre: job fraud.
Spoiler alert, it’s getting worse.
— Ian Krietzberg, Editor-in-Chief, The Deep View
In today’s newsletter:
AI for Good: Tackling our food waste problem
Source: Unsplash
In a bit of an extension of that circular economy that we talked about yesterday, welcome to the world of food waste.
The FDA estimates that food waste in the U.S. is estimated at around 40% of the food supply. Food, according to the FDA, is the “single largest category of material placed in municipal landfills” — not only could this food have gone to people who need it, it also represents a massive waste of the energy that was spent producing and shipping that food.
In short, it would be really good to reduce (if not eliminate entirely) food waste. And AI has been regarded as a tool with the potential to help us do just that.
The details: The key to this all is that AI can process and analyze vast amounts of data, allowing it to be leveraged, according to one study, to “monitor and optimize” the food supply chain, from production to distribution.
And on the redistribution side, AI and machine learning can be used to categorize food donations, determine if food is safe for consumption and help nonprofits optimize for efficiency in distribution.
It’s all about streamlining processes and optimizing for efficiency in a push to reduce waste. Algorithms are largely pretty good at that.
The key, though, is in proper cost-benefit analyses — if the sustainability achieved/energy saved by such systems exceeds the energy used to power those systems, then it might be a viable option. If it doesn’t, there’s no real point in using them.
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Regulation is scaring US tech giants out of Europe
Source: Unsplash
Meta won’t release any of its upcoming multimodal generative AI models to customers in the European Union due to concerns over regulation, Axios reported.
The details: Meta said in a statement to Axios that it would "release a multimodal Llama model over the coming months, but not in the EU due to the unpredictable nature of the European regulatory environment.”
Meta said that this move could prevent European companies from using the models despite them being released under an open license.
For context: Meta’s been having problems with European regulators lately. Last month, regulators forced Meta to stop training its AI models on European user data.
Due to this, Meta said it wouldn’t release Meta AI in Europe. The company added that it needs user data to build better models.
It’s not just Meta, either; Apple said last month that it won’t be rolling out some of its upcoming Apple Intelligence features in Europe due to regulatory concerns.
AI crypto startup Sentient raised $85 million in seed funding led by Founders Fund.
AI security startup Redactive AI raised $7.5 million in seed funding.
Bye-bye bitcoin, hello AI: Texas miners leave crypto for next new wave (CNBC).
TSMC rides AI demand to raise revenue forecast, says no to US joint venture (Reuters).
Google’s AI results are showing up less frequently, a study found (The Verge).
OpenAI has talked to Broadcom about developing new AI chip (The Information).
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Nvidia completes its fourth acquisition of the year
Source: Nvidia
This week, Nvidia acquired Brev.dev, a San Francisco-based startup that helps AI developers find the most efficient, cost-effective GPUs across cloud providers.
The details: Neither company disclosed the financial terms of the acquisition.
“Brev’s goal is to build the easiest way for AI/ML developers to use a GPU,” the company wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Teaming up with NVIDIA means being able to deliver on that mission by pairing the most powerful hardware with the industry leading software.”
The company, which was founded in 2021, describes itself on its website as a “single interface between AWS, [Google Cloud Platform], Fluidstack and other GPU clouds.”
One of four: This marks the fourth acquisition Nvidia has made this year.
In April, Nvidia acquired Israeli AI infrastructure management startup Run:ai, reportedly for around $700 million. Shortly after that, Nvidia acquired Deci, an AI startup, reportedly for $300 million.
And last month, Nvidia acquired Shoreline.io in a deal reportedly worth $100 million.
At the same time, the semiconductor sector experienced a bit of a pullback this week, with shares of Nvidia and AMD tumbling amid reports that more severe trade restrictions to China are on the way.
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AI-assisted job fraud is spiking
Source: Unsplash
Over the past few years, identity theft and fraud have been changing, supercharged by highly-accessible technology that keeps getting more and more powerful (cases of extremely convincing scam phone calls, created and scaled through generative AI, are becoming something of a common occurrence).
A recent report published by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) found that data from 2023 shows “an environment where bad actors are more effective, efficient and successful in launching attacks. The result is fewer victims (or at least fewer victim reports), but the impact on individuals and businesses is arguably more damaging.”
One of these attacks involves fake job postings.
The details: The ITRC said that victim reports of job and employment scams spiked some 118% in 2023. These scams were primarily carried out through LinkedIn and other job search platforms.
The bad actors here would either create fake (but professional-looking) job postings, profiles and websites or impersonate legitimate companies, all with the hopes of landing victims to move onto the interview process.
These actors would then move the conversation onto a third-party messaging platform, and ask for identity verification information (driver’s licenses, social security numbers, direct deposit information, etc.).
“The rapid improvement in the look, feel and messaging of identity scams is almost certainly the result of the introduction of AI-driven tools,” the ITRC said. These tools help “refine the pitch,” making these scams more believable while also compensating for cultural or grammatical difference in language usage.
By the numbers: The FTC recently said that such job scams were among the top ten types of fraud reported to the agency in 2022, with people reporting a total loss of $367 million to these scams.
The median loss was $2,000.
How to protect yourself from scams: The best mode of protection here, according to the ITRC, involves independent verification.
In other words, “pick up the phone and verify the contact directly from the source.”
This simple (and low-tech) method of independent verification is a good shield against most types of scams; any phone calls that offer to connect you with your bank or some other institution should set off alarm bells. Always call directly.
Through AI, these and other scams have become good enough to be believable. Which means we can no longer be complacent.
I’ve spoken with cybersecurity researchers who have said that — by default — we can no longer trust anything we see or hear online, from job offers to videos, tweets, emails, phone calls, zoom calls, articles, etc.
If it ever existed, trust by default is dead. What this requires of us is to be more vigilant, to perform cross-platform verification, to be more conscious about what we consume and to be well aware of what generative AI is capable of.
This will just involve a transformation of how we engage with the internet.
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A poll before you go
Thanks for reading today’s edition of The Deep View!
We’ll see you in the next one.
Your view on AI companions:
20% of you said you’d absolutely use one, 20% said you’d never use one and 20% said it’s fine in certain contexts. But 15% said the idea of AI companions sets society on a dangerous path and the remaining 25% said it’s complicated.
It’s complicated
“It’s complicated for so many reasons and we don’t have a lot of empirical data to show consequences. We know that there is no going back so we are left with the infinite number of variables of how people will be using ‘it.’”
It’s okay in certain contexts:
“Like nearly every new technology, this will help some people and do harm to others. But if you saw the movie ‘Her,’ you know this is inevitable. It’s just too compelling an idea to think it won’t grow legs.”
Have you been on the receiving end of AI-assisted fraud? |
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