An imposter using artificial intelligence to pose as Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been contacting a number of foreign and U.S. government officials, The Washington Times reported Tuesday.
Starting in mid-June, several foreign ministers, a member of Congress and a governor started receiving messages via the encrypted messaging service Signal from an account with the display name “Marco.Rubio@state.gov.” Officials also received voice messages that appear to utilize AI technology to mimic Rubio’s voice, a U.S. State Department official told The Washington Post.
“The goal (of the imposter, we believe, is) gaining access to information or accounts,” reads a communication from Rubio’s office, The Washington Post reported. “...The actor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals and, in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal.”
While it's unknown whether any of the officials responded to the imposter, the incident calls back to the scandal involving a number of high-ranking U.S. officials discussing classified information over Signal, exposed after National Security Advisor Mike Waltz mistakenly added a journalist from The Atlantic to chat.
“This is precisely why you shouldn’t use Signal or other insecure channels for official government business,” said Hany Farid, a University of California at Berkeley professor who specializes in deepfake technology, speaking with The Washington Post.
“You just need 15 to 20 seconds of audio of the person, which is easy in Marco Rubio’s case. You upload it to any number of services, click a button that says ‘I have permission to use this person’s voice,’ and then you type what you want him to say. Leaving voicemails is particularly effective because it’s not interactive.”
Incidents of government officials being impersonated using AI have increased as the technology continues to advance, with a Democratic consultant being charged last year with several crimes for launching an ad in New Hampshire that included an AI-generated voice of then-President Joe Biden, urging residents not to vote in the Democratic primary election.