Carrier creates AI grandmother Daisy to waste scammers’ time [Video]

UK mobile carrier O2 has created Daisy, an AI grandmother designed to waste the time of phone scammers by keeping them on the line as long as possible.

Anyone can report a scam call or message by texting their number to 7722, where it will be checked and then added to the list of targets …

The longer you can keep a scammer on the line, the fewer innocent victims they will be able to call.

The idea of using a bot to do this automatically was popularized by Lenny, a voice chatbot which picks one of sixteen pre-recorded audio clips of what appears to be a slow-speaking and technologically-challenged elderly man. Lenny has also been used as a tool against unsolicited telemarketing calls.

Despite the limited number of responses offered, Lenny has sometimes succeeded in keeping unwanted callers on the line for an hour or more.

O2 has now created its own AI-powered version, known as Daisy.

O2 …