Control the bot, control the relationship

Building on my recent blogs about AI, the AI you, your digital twin and the way the digital world is becoming its own world, I was reminded of the film Transcendence.

You probably know this film but, just in case you don’t, the idea is that an AI scientist uploads their mind to the network to live his life after his death. There’s more to it than that, but watch the film to find out the details.

The thing is that science fiction is becoming science fact, and the idea of an AI digital you is here. I have friends who have passed physically, but can still interact with me digitally on facebook, Instagram and such like. They don’t reply these days … but what if they did? Would you freak out or go wow?

This is kind of important in the financial world as we have become so reliant on remote relationships and digital connections that we won’t know who is dead or alive.

I realised this when my mother passed earlier this year. She walked that stairway to heaven (I hope!) and left behind a bank account with me as executor. All well and good.

Shortly after her death, the bank blocked the account as the death certificate had been filed by the hospital with the government database. Everything is connected. But what if it was not? What if she died quietly at home and I just buried her in the garden?

Sounds a bit sick, if you ask me, but let’s roll with it for a minute. No one would know she was gone. At this point, I could become her. I could carry on her presence in the virtual world, talking to friends on social media and using her accounts to move money, wherever I wanted and for whatever I chose.

Most people don’t think this way – including me, just to be clear – but some people think that this creates huge opportunity to buck the system (note that this was a ‘b’ and not an ‘f’). Professional fraudster Tony Sales brought it home to me when he said that anyone whose major drive is money would rob their own grandma. That’s what I just described, but take it to the nth degree.

Fifty years ago, there is no way I could have walked into a bank branch and say that my name is Ethel Skinner. Online with an AI twin, why not?

The growth of AI twins in finance are going to be the biggest challenge of the next decade. After all, it may be easy for a bank bot to recognise a fraud bot, but what about a bank bot recognising a fraud bot that looks like my mum’s bot? Or my dad’s bot? Or my brother’s or sister’s bot? Or any old bot that I’ve hijacked and taken over?

If I control the bot, I control the relationship.

This is the core challenge we face today as, on the internet, not only does no-one know you’re a dog but, if you can prove you’re not a dog, you get access to all. In fact, my thesis of the challenge of digital trust in a deep fake world just goes one step beyond. What about digital trust in a deep fake world when someone can prove they look real when they are not? What are you going to do now?