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United States AI Politics

A Marco Rubio Impostor is Using AI Voice To Call High-Level Officials (msn.com) 32

An impostor pretending to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio contacted foreign ministers, a U.S. governor and a member of Congress by sending them voice and text messages that mimic Rubio's voice and writing style using AI-powered software, Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing a senior U.S. official and a State Department cable. From the report: U.S. authorities do not know who is behind the string of impersonation attempts but they believe the culprit was probably attempting to manipulate powerful government officials "with the goal of gaining access to information or accounts," according to a cable sent by Rubio's office to State Department employees.

Using both text messaging and the encrypted messaging app Signal, which the Trump administration uses extensively, the impostor "contacted at least five non-Department individuals, including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a U.S. member of Congress," said the cable, dated July 3. The impersonation campaign began in mid-June when the impostor created a Signal account using the display name "Marco.Rubio@state.gov" to contact unsuspecting foreign and domestic diplomats and politicians, said the cable.

A Marco Rubio Impostor is Using AI Voice To Call High-Level Officials

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  • to blame a hacker impersonating him when the shit hits the fan.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Isn't it illegal to regulate AI for 10 years or something now?

    • Only if a state tries to. Coming from the same crowd who are always yelling about "states rights".

    • It was reduced to five years [fastcompany.com]:

      Notably, Senate negotiations reduced the proposed moratorium from 10 years to five, and added exceptions for state rules that protect kids and copyrights, so long as the rules do not âoeunduly or disproportionately burdenâ AI systems and models.

  • just sayin (Score:4, Informative)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Tuesday July 08, 2025 @12:17PM (#65505480) Journal

    Using both text messaging and the encrypted messaging app Signal, which the Trump administration uses extensively, the impostor "contacted at least five non-Department individuals...

    They'd be safer using Hillary's email server.

    • I find it hard to believe anyone could get hold of Susy Wiles' contacts list, given the rigorous OpSec multiple members of this administration have repeatedly shown. /s

    • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      Its a nice cheap shot isn't it but points to a really serious issue our government has with communication. HRC did her thing Colin Powell is said to have done so as well. We have the current admin using Signal and probably other "Consumer" messaging apps, even if the cryptography on those is sound the identity management and that of the mobile and MVNO carriers they rely on for phone number control etc probably isnt at least not universally.

      There is abundant evidence a lot of highly confidential matters a

      • by algaeman ( 600564 )
        and just to be clear, they wouldn't be using these consumer apps if they weren't concerned about the legality of the content they are discussing. There are secure apps and messaging tools these officials are supposed to be using which get entered into a permanent record.
        • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

          and just to be clear, that is the argument the out of power group always makes whenever anyone gets caught using unofficial channels.

          Meanwhile we have serious problems with leakers at all levels of government and House Intel committee members with Chinese spies on their staff.

          If I were part of the current administration I would pretty little trust in the ability of the federal employees I have an antagonistic relationship with to not leak stuff to the press. We should all wonder if the intelligence committe

          • and just to be clear, that is the argument the out of power group always makes whenever anyone gets caught using unofficial channels.

            I've been snarky in this thread so far; but I completely agree with this. It was bad when Clinton's group did it, and it's bad when Trump's team does it. We have strict security and public records requirements for a reason (for multiple reasons, actually).

  • Sounds like they moved on almost immediately from Wiles to Rubio.

    Chief of Staff, NatSec/State -- DoD should be next (Hegseth). Rattcliff might be more powerful but they probably don't want to cross CIA. Or the call is coming from inside the house.

    https://apnews.com/article/sus... [apnews.com]

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Hegseth leaks enough classified info all by himself.

    • The one thing we DO know - it's not Russia. Thank heavens THAT threat is now gone!

  • ...also wear artificial boots with high heels? For the sake of authenticity, it must! https://www.gq.com/story/marco... [gq.com]
  • I didn't think AI could use crayons...



    It's funny because the people responsible for keeping all of us alive are completely incompetent Yes Men...
    • I didn't think AI could use crayons...

      There's very likely enough child- an child-like drawing around to make a decent training set for an AI that could fool people into thinking a child did it.

      --

      Yeah, I know you were trying to slam Rubio, but I'm redirecting this thread back to something a bit more technical.

  • Late in the Biden administration, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommended [bleepingcomputer.com] all high level federal government officials "Adopt a free messaging application for secure communications that guarantees end-to-end encryption, such as Signal or similar apps." Here is the PDF [cisa.gov] on CISA's own site. The fact that this was done so late in the Biden admin, combined with CISA's role in censoring conservative voices on the internet [supremecourt.gov] over the preceding years, made this order very suspicious to

  • From the linked article

    "You just need 15 to 20 seconds of audio of the person, which is easy in Marco Rubio’s case. You upload it to any number of services, click a button that says ‘I have permission to use this person’s voice,’ and then you type what you want him to say,” said Farid. “Leaving voicemails is particularly effective because it’s not interactive."

    Fraud is fine. It's legal actually. It's what AI is for. It's una-Murrican to s

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