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| Image from Unsplash |
Have you ever had no time (or no desire) to call your parents? Then there’s now a handy service that everyone will benefit from!
This is
about a company offering a rather unusual AI service. They actually call your
elderly parents. So you don’t have to. On their website you’ll find a photo of
the Czech founder with his mother, accompanied by the story of how he lived
abroad but wanted to stay in touch with her. Different time zones, a demanding
job, and “the unpredictability of life” kept getting in the way. And so the
idea for his company was born. It helps people feel “remembered, connected, and
valued,” they say.
A bit
more information from their website. “Mary” calls the elderly person and asks
how they’re doing. She also remembers what you tell her. Incredibly handy, of
course: if you tell her today that you need to see the doctor, she’ll ask you
tomorrow how it went. She also makes use of 1,400 “life story questions” – something like a database full of opening
lines. On top of that, she sprinkles interesting little facts throughout the
conversation to help keep the mind sharp.
Before
long, the older person will likely no longer realise they’re talking to AI.
Simply because AI sounds so natural. I’d bet that you and I wouldn’t hear the
difference either. And once you start considering Mary a friend, you’ll
probably tell her the same things you’d tell a real friend. For example, about
your health – something older people talk about
quite often. The company proudly displays the logo “HIPAA compliant” on its
website. HIPAA is U.S. legislation concerning the privacy and security of
medical data. But it’s less strict than our GDPR. In the EU, medical data is
considered special-category personal data, which is subject to extra stringent
rules.
Older
people are particularly vulnerable when it comes to cybercrime. Recently there
are a lot of stories about fake police officers showing up to collect money and
jewellery, supposedly because some great danger is looming. Criminals could
easily piggyback on a service like this. For example, by pretending to be Mary
and asking clever questions to manipulate their victim. Because they trust
Mary, there’s a greater chance they’ll go along with the story. You can
basically wait for this to happen, sad as that may be.
In your
work, you may sooner or later get a phone call from a fake Mary as well. These
scams already happen. Three years ago, an American named Brianna was supposedly
kidnapped. Her mother received a call and heard her daughter speaking. Or so
she thought. Because with AI, a few seconds of audio – stolen from social media – is enough to
make someone sound lifelike while saying anything you want. The same could
happen with your manager, for example, asking you to email certain data. So if
you get a strange request over the phone, call the person back on the number
you know to verify that it’s legitimate.
And as
for Mary? I prefer to call my mother, who turned 93 today (happy birthday!),
myself. Much nicer that way.
And in the big bad world…
… a
training course got in the way of filling this section.
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