‘AI granny’ scambaiter wastes telephone fraudsters’ time with boring chat

Telephone scams are nothing new, but with the advent of AI, it has become harder than ever for people to know whether the person they’re speaking to is in fact who they say they are. But U.K. mobile network O2 is turning the tables, creating what it calls an “AI granny” to keep scammers on the line for no good reason.

Daisy, as the bot is called, embraces “human-like rambling chat” to keep the scammers talking, with the express purpose of wasting their time with stories of family, knitting, and divulging entirely made-up personal information including bank details.

Made with help from YouTuber, software engineer, and renowned “scambaiter” Jim Browning, Daisy combines various AI models to listen and respond to calls. But it’s not something you’ll be able to use yourself (as fun as that would be) — O2 says it managed to get some of its own phone numbers added to lists used by scammers for this exercise.

Designed to mark International Fraud Awareness Week, the company says it has kept “numerous fraudsters on calls for 40 minutes at a time.