Meet Daisy: The AI Granny Outsmarting Scammers

O2 has introduced "Daisy," a lifelike AI-powered "granny," to tackle phone scammers by engaging them in long, pointless conversations. Daisy, part of the "Swerve the Scammers" initiative, is trained with advanced AI and insights from prominent scambaiters like Jim Browning. With the ability to hold convincing real-time conversations, she wastes scammers’ time, keeping them away from real victims. The AI combines voice recognition, a conversational language model, and a custom text-to-speech system to seamlessly respond, sometimes holding fraudsters on calls for over 40 minutes.

This initiative aligns with O2's research showing that 71% of Brits want to outsmart scammers but hesitate due to time constraints. By playing on scammers’ biases, Daisy shares faux personal details and distracts them with tales of knitting and family life. The program coincides with International Fraud Awareness Week, highlighting the growing issue of scams, of which 67% of Brits are afraid. Daisy’s antics are complemented by influencer Amy Hart’s campaign video, where she shares her own harrowing experience with a £5,000 scam to raise awareness.

O2 has extended its fraud prevention efforts by blocking millions of spam messages monthly and urging the public to forward suspicious activity to 7726. Beyond Daisy’s entertaining deterrence, O2 calls for systemic changes, including a dedicated fraud minister and centralised policing to combat scams at scale. The telecom giant’s commitment reflects a broader push for collaboration in protecting consumers in an increasingly digital landscape.

Full story via O2 press release.