Sophistication of AI-backed operation targeting senator points to future of deepfake schemes

Washington (AP) — An advanced deepfake operation targeted Sen. Ben Cardin, the Democratic chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this month, according to the Office of Senate Security, the latest sign that nefarious actors are turning to artificial intelligence in efforts to dupe top political figures in the United States.

Experts believe schemes like this will become more common now that the technical barriers that once existed around generative artificial intelligence have decreased. The notice from Senate Security sent to Senate offices on Monday said the attempt “stands out due to its technical sophistication and believability.”

The scheme centered around Dmytro Kuleba, the former Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Cardin’s office received an email from someone they believed to be Kuleba, according to the notice, an official Cardin knew from a past meeting.

When the two met for a video call, the connection “was consistent in appearance and sound to past encounters.” It wasn’t until the caller posing as Kuleba began asking questions like “Do you support long range missiles into Russian territory? I need to know your answer,” that Cardin and his staff suspected “something was off,” the Senate notice said.

“The speaker continued, asking the Senator politically charged questions in relation to the upcoming election,” likely to try and bait him into commenting on a political candidate, according to the notice from Nicolette Llewellyn, the director of Senate Security. “The Senator and their staff ended the call, and quickly reached out to the Department of State who verified it was not Kuleba.”

Cardin on Wednesday described the encounter as “a malign actor engaged in a deceptive attempt to have a conversation