would you like a little extra help?

This is shocking.

As a person in my twenties and having "grown up with computers", i'm used to advising older members of my family to look out for certain things to avoid being scammed online. For the first time today, I'm not sure i'd have been able to help them.

Throughout the last few years as the pandemic and cost of living crisis has affected many brits, they've looked to become more savvy with their finances. Martin Lewis has become a trusted figure for many of these people - he's built up a solid reputation for offering good advice to an increasingly widespread audience.

This reputation has now been threatened by malicious scam artists. A "deepfake" video appearing to show Martin Lewis making investment advice has created and circulated with the sole intention to scam people out of their money. You can see the full article & video here on the BBC website.

At Select Choice, we've been looking to improve our cyber security for some time now - but there's still work to be done as a sector and as a country. What's slightly more worrying is the increasing use of rapidly improving AI technology for nefarious means.

Unfortunately, May 2023 saw two petitions rejected regarding the risks posed by AI (links below).

Stop AI software until 3 Russel group universities provide a risk assessment

Invite impartial experts to brief parliament on existential risk from AI

There is an ongoing effort to introduce state regulation of AI, which you can view here. Do you believe the government has a responsibility to protect its citizens against AI?

Support is currently tiny, so if you do, you might want to sign the petition.

[Featured image courtesy of The Indepedent]