--- title: "Sam Altman Warns That AI Is About to Cause a Massive “Fraud Crisis” in Which Anyone Can Perfectly Imitate Anyone Else" description: "OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is warning of an \"impending fraud crisis\" in which practically anybody will be able to imitate others." date: "2025-07-27" modified: "2025-07-27" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/sam-altman-ai-fraud-crisis-imitate" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "generative ai" - "OpenAI" - "sam altman" - "scam" --- # Sam Altman Warns That AI Is About to Cause a Massive “Fraud Crisis” in Which Anyone Can Perfectly Imitate Anyone Else ![OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is warning of an "impending fraud crisis" in which practically anybody will be able to imitate others.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is [warning of an "impending fraud crisis]()" in which practically anybody will be able to imitate not only the voice but even the likeness of others, using the type of AI that his company is helping pioneer. During a chat with Federal Reserve vice chair Michelle Bowman in Washington, DC, Altman argued that the banking industry must modernize to avoid having its customers fall victim to widespread fraud. "I am very nervous about this," he told Bowman. "A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept a voice print as authentication for you to move a lot of money or do something else. You say a challenge phrase and they just do it." "AI has fully defeated most of the ways that people authenticate currently, other than passwords," he went on. "Right now, it’s a voice call; soon it’s going be a video or FaceTime that’s indistinguishable from reality." To his credit, it's not just the usual fearmongering from AI leaders warning of impending doom brought on by a so-called artificial general intelligence. We've already seen [plenty]() [of instances]() of scammers perfectly imitating the voices of their victims to [demand ransoms]() for their loved ones, or even trick [employees into cashing out company funds](). Thanks to significant technological progress in the AI space, it has never been easier to imitate somebody's voice or even face with the help of an app. It's part of a larger, worrying trend. Last year, the [FBI warned]() of an "increasing threat" of cyber criminals harnessing the power of AI to "conduct sophisticated phishing/social engineering attacks and voice/video cloning scams." Earlier this month, Trump officials revealed that an imposter had even used AI to [impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio]() to contact "three foreign ministers, a US governor, and a US member of Congress" with the "goal of gaining access to information or accounts." In other words, it's only a matter of time until scammers employ the same tactics to get into somebody's bank account — if it hasn't happened already, that is. Covering his derriere, Altman told Bowman that his firm had nothing to do with the "impending fraud crisis," claiming that OpenAI wasn't working on impersonation tools. However, as [*CNN* points out](), the billionaire does back a tool called [The Orb](), which is working on a [controversial]() biometric authentication method. And its video generator Sora could conceivably be used for exactly the types he's talking about as well. Altman claimed that "other people in our industry have tried, to sort of warn people like, ‘Hey, just because we're not releasing the technology doesn't mean it doesn't exist." "Some bad actor is going to release it," he added. "This is not a super difficult thing to do. This is coming very, very soon." **More on Sam Altman:** *[OpenAI Engineer Quits, Says Company Is Pure Chaos Inside]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()