Scams, courtesy of AI🦾

Refactored

Good Morning! Buckle up, it’s time for some tech news. Today we are here to protect your from online scams, talk about Target and some more AI stuff.

Reading time is 4 minutes. Let’s go!

The Main Thing
You should know

Scam and Spam, Powered by AI

What: AI models are getting better and so are the scams! A new type of "impersonation" scam is on the rise. Using a tiny sample of your audio, scammers can mimic your voice and convince your friends/family you're in need of money for an emergency!

Zoom in: It is fairly easy to clone voice. For instance, Resemble.ai can transform your voice into the target voice in real time, with complete inflection and intonation!! Microsoft launched an AI in early 2023 that can simulate anyone's voice with just 3 seconds of audio!

Big Picture: Fraud detection is lagging far behind compared to the tech used by scammers. For now, awareness about the scams is the best way to stay safe. And yes, may be it's time to remove your voice from your phone's voicemail.

Read more: Washington Post’s article on AI-Voice scams

Tech Roundup
Stay Informed

Target: Curbside Pickup is so 2020. Target is launching Curbside returns! The company will allow customers to return new, unopened items from convenience of their car!

Apple: Your next iPhone would likely be made in India. Foxconn, the company that manufactures iPhones is investing $700 million to build a new factory in India that would employ over 100,000 people!

Scout Motors: The Volkswagen backed company hasn’t launched a car yet, but is investing $2 billion to build a factory in South Carolina. The factory would manufacture 200,000 rugged electric SUVs per year.

Around the Internet
Juicy quick bites

• 🛍️ Amazon: to close its cashier-less stores in NYC, SF and Seattle

• 🔑 Forgot Password: A man has 2 attempts left to recover $232M worth of bitcoin from a hard-drive.

• 🔋 USPS goes electric: buys 9,250 electric vehicles and 14,000 charging stations.

• 👨🏻‍💻 Work in tech? Read the detailed guide to the system design interview.

• 🥷🏻 Like Hacking? Belgium launches safe-harbor for ethical hackers.

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