UMVA has learned that a new wave of powerful AI tools is now available to the public, and unfortunately, hackers and scammers are also getting their hands on these technologies. This development brings a whole new set of attacks and dangers that we need to watch out for.
Google is taking direct action against AI deepfake calls, which are becoming increasingly sophisticated. These scams involve a caller pretending to be someone you trust, like a family member, and using AI to mimic their voice and appearance. Google's new feature, fake call detection, aims to flag these suspicious calls before they can cause harm.
The scam detection works through a digital handshake in the background, using the Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging protocol. When someone calls you, a "silent confirmation signal" is sent from their phone to yours, verifying their phone and identifying them as one of your contacts. If the call is from a deepfaked AI character, that signal will be missing, and the Phone app will alert you to potential danger.
This security feature is going to be on by default once the update rolls out, but you can turn it off through the settings screen in the Google Phone app if you prefer. The update is a timely reminder of the highly realistic audio and video that AI is capable of producing, which contributes to significant financial losses from impersonation scams every year.
Google's June Android Drop includes other exciting features, such as a new outfit search feature rolling out to Circle to Search. This feature, previously available on select handsets, allows you to highlight an outfit on screen and get search results for every part of that outfit together.
Google Photos is also getting a new wardrobe feature, which allows you to browse items of clothing pulled from your photo library, mix and match them together, and use AI to try on any combination of items. This feature is heading to devices running Android 10 or later in the U.S., India, and Brazil.
The Personal Safety app is getting new safety features for kids under 13, including medical information, emergency contacts, real-time location sharing, and car crash detection. Additionally, Google is making it easier to share files between Android and iOS devices using AirDrop or QR code.
Google Play Books is also getting an update, with a new "book insights" feature that allows you to summarize the plot up to the current position and ask questions about passages, themes, context, and characters. Lastly, the Emoji Kitchen is getting more combinations available, allowing you to create fun and custom emojis to share with friends.
