Openai CEO Sam Altman has expressed serious concern about how artificial intelligence quickly undermines traditional methods of identity verification, especially in economic and security systems.
When he talked about the evolving peat landscape, Altman said he is afraid that some financial institutions are still dependent on voice imprints for approval – a method he believes has already become ineffective of AI’s capabilities.
“One thing that scares me is that some banks still accept voiceprints to verify identity,” he said. “AI has completely broken this method.” Altman explained that although passwords still offer a certain level of security, most modern, more practical forms of approval – such as voice recognition or facial companies – are no longer reliable in an era of powerful generative AI tools.
He warned of an impending wave of fraud as AI tools capable of emulating human voices and appearances become more accessible and sophisticated. “We have tried and others in the technical community have also tried to warn people. A bad actor could easily use these tools. It’s not hard to do, and it comes very soon,” Altman said.
He pointed to the recent events involving ransom fraud, where criminals use AI-Generated voices from a victim’s dear-such as a child or parent-to create urgent, credible scenarios over the phone. These tactics, warned Altman, are becoming even more convincing with the introduction of AI-generated video calls that are almost impossible to distinguish from real.
“This will be so convincing that society basically needs to consider how we authenticate people,” he emphasized. “Soon a simple voice call or even a FaceTime may not be reliable. We have to prepare people for a world where traditional ways of verifying identity no longer work. The effect of this on fraud and security is massive.
