According to authorities, a scammer in China used artificial intelligence (AI) to pose as a trusted friend of a businessman and convince him to hand over millions of yuan.

In April, the victim, whose surname is Guo, received a video call from someone who appeared and sounded like a close friend.

However, the caller was a con artist “using smart AI technology to change (his) face and voice,” according to an article published on Monday by a government-affiliated media portal in the southern city of Fuzhou.

According to the article, the scammer was “masquerading as (Guo’s) good friend and perpetrating fraud.” 

The con artist convinced Mr. Guo to transfer 4.3 million yuan (S$823,000), saying that a friend needed the cash withdrawn from a business bank account to cover the guarantee on a public tender.

The fraudster requested Mr. Guo’s personal banking information before claiming that a comparable amount had been wired to his account and sending him a screenshot of a fake payment record.

Without verifying that he had actually received the funds, Mr. Guo sent two payments from his business account totaling the requested sum.

“At the time, I verified the face and voice of the person video-calling me, so I let down my guard,” the article quoted Mr Guo as saying.

He didn’t realize his error until he messaged the friend whose identity had been stolen and who was unaware of the transaction.

A bank in another city was informed not to proceed with the transfers after Mr. Guo informed the police, and he was able to recover 3.4 million yuan, according to the article. 

It also stated that efforts were being made to recover the remaining funds, but it made no mention of who was behind the scam.

The risks associated with revolutionary AI technology have attracted heightened attention since United States-based company OpenAI in November launched ChatGPT, a chatbot that mimics human speech.

China has made bold plans to lead the world in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030, and a number of tech companies, including Alibaba, JD.com, NetEase, and TikTok parent company ByteDance, have hurried to create comparable products.

Although ChatGPT is not available in China, a growing number of Chinese users are accessing it through virtual private networks to write essays and study for tests. However, it is also being used for more sinister purposes.

Earlier in May, police in the northwestern province of Gansu said “coercive measures” had been taken against a man who used ChatGPT to create a fake news article about a fatal bus crash that was widely shared on social media. 

A law prohibiting the use of deepfakes, which went into effect in January, prohibits the use of the technology to create, publish, or transmit false news.

In addition, a draft law proposed by Beijing’s Internet regulator in April would require all new AI products to undergo a “security assessment” before being released to the public.

Recent breakthroughs of AI technology have been creating buzzes all over the world, generating different controversial conversations around its use. 

While it has made certain aspects of our daily creative tasks and our lives in general easier, once has to also wonder the extra complexities it brings to the world of cyber-crime, an aspect of the crime world which has already been more than complex enough.