A new survey reveals that roughly 71% of Americans are worried they'll be scammed by generative AI, highlighting the rapid rise of AI-driven fraud.
The poll, released today, shows about 71% of respondents are concerned about AI scams, with 13% unconcerned and 18% neutral. Additionally, 69% worry about deepfakes, 66% about AI hallucinations, and similar shares fear sexual and online abuse.
Criminals are accused of exploiting generative AI in several ways: they use prompt engineering to trick ChatGPT, fabricate deepfake videos such as a fake Elon Musk promotion to push crypto scams, and craft hyper-personalized phishing emails that bypass typical spelling errors. Email scams jumped more than 135% between January and February as chatbots equipped with sophisticated linguistic techniques flooded inboxes.
Security experts report that 80% of organizations have fallen victim to phishing emails written by generative AI, and synthetic identity fraud is on the rise as scammers harvest Social Security numbers and birth dates. The ability to generate flawless text in multiple languages has made scams harder to spot, prompting calls for stronger safeguards.
The growing concern reflects a broader shift as generative AI becomes a tool for fraud rather than just assistance.