Talk about an identity crisis.
How can businesses and their people trust that someone actually is who they say they are? It’s tougher than ever to know for sure.
The story that’s spooked everyone: Scammers duped a Hong Kong finance worker into shelling out $25 million—by using AI-powered deepfake technology to pose as the company’s CFO and other staff members during a video call.
Granted, that’s an elaborate ruse. But the threat of similar trickery has left providers of digital identity verification scrambling to catch up.
Just ask Franz Gilbert, a managing director at Deloitte, where he’s global growth leader for human capital ecosystems and alliances. Gilbert, who spends a lot of time talking with HR tech providers, is also hearing from clients worried about visual deepfakes.
Their line of questioning: “How do I know the person I interviewed is the same person that I printed out a badge for,” Gilbert relates, “and is the same person that four months from now is actually sitting behind the keyboard and doing the work?”
As of yet, the digital trust industry has no magic solution to deepfakery.
AI is “definitely going to live up to the hype,” says Todd McKinnon, cofounder and CEO of employee and customer identity platform Okta. As he points out, someone could create a fake video of me that says I need a new password.
“The vendors making tools to defend companies against that have to step up,” McKinnon says. “I think some of that is actually going to be done with AI itself as well.”
Deepfakes are just part of the problem. Because biometrics and hardware tokens have made it harder to break into people’s accounts, threat actors have moved upstream with their phishing efforts, McKinnon observes. For example, a hacker might call a company’s help desk, pretending to be an employee, and ask to reset their two-factor authentication.
“So they have to be diligent and get a video call with you and make sure you’re really you,” says McKinnon, whose company does workforce identity for FedEx and customer identity for ChatGPT. “Hopefully, AI doesn’t make that harder.”
Deloitte sees a gap in digital identity management. There are products that cover interviewing and some onboarding, Gilbert notes: “That’s a very distinct software category from badge management tools, facility management tools.” A third suite of products allows monitoring, by taking snapshots of workers via their computers.
But there’s still nothing that compares all three, Gilbert says. And the fix isn’t as simple as it might look.
“You can say, ‘Okay, let’s do a facial-recognition comparison from a snapshot taken during an interview, a snapshot off the badge, a snapshot later, and compare the three,’” Gilbert explains. But when it comes to regulation, the storage and comparison of biometric data is highly problematic in some jurisdictions: “The reality is, I think it’s going to take some time for the industry to try to figure out how to navigate.”
But after speaking to firms that are working on the problem, Gilbert is optimistic. “This really is a real-time issue,” he says. “It’s an operational concern that companies have to solve.”
Luckily, the SaaS industry responds well to that, Gilbert adds: “We’ll probably see a couple solutions that are commercially out there pretty quickly, probably within the next 12 months.”
In the meantime, hold my video calls.
Nick Rockel
nick.rockel@consultant.fortune.com
Update, May 10, 2024: A previous version of this newsletter cited research that Fortune editors later determined was from a source that does not meet our editorial standards.
IN OTHER NEWS
Safety last
Well, it’s about time. Elon Musk’s X just appointed a new head of safety—nine months after her predecessor left the social media platform. Kylie McRoberts takes the job with trust in the former Twitter at a low ebb, partly thanks to X’s reputation for spreading misinformation and hate speech. IBM and NBCUniversal are just two of the major advertisers that have bolted.
Currency conversion
With FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried now serving a 25-year sentence for fraud, has the cryptocurrency industry turned a corner? Alesia Haas thinks so. The CFO of Coinbase, America’s biggest centralized crypto exchange, argues that the market has mostly moved on. “We are excited to build and regain the trust of our customers,” Haas tells Sheryl Estrada.
Watch out
Dina Boluarte might find herself wishing she never owned a Rolex. Already unpopular after taking power in 2022 amid political unrest, Peru’s unelected president now has an approval rating of just 9%, thanks to a scandal over her collection of luxury goods. After police raided her home, Boluarte faces a criminal probe for alleged illegal enrichment.
Voice actor
More exciting yet terrifying news on the AI front. OpenAI has developed technology that can clone someone’s voice from a 15-second recording of their speech, the ChatGPT maker claims. But the company is keeping the new voice assistant to itself for now, citing risk of misuse, especially during an election year. How big of them.
TRUST EXERCISE
“Now, with a majority of adults having some experience with online dating, we have entered a new era where a small sample size of experiences is constantly framed as a harbinger for the end of online dating. Gen Z singles are the first generation that is radically transparent about sharing bad dating experiences with millions of followers on social media, something that historically has been reserved for close family and friends.
Because these stories are fodder to build a TikTok following, we are seeing a distorted perception that more experiences are negative because they are the loudest. The shared homes, wedding vows, and growing families that resulted from a dating app don’t tend to go viral, but they are just as prevalent.”
Bernard Kim makes the case that online dating is still alive and well. Then again, he would—Kim is CEO of Match Group, which owns Tinder, OkCupid, and several other dating apps. But hear him out.
As Kim explains, dating apps make it easier and less scary to meet new people. They’ve also long played host to the LGBTQ+ community, providing a space for folks to come out before telling friends and family. In fact, more than 60% of LGBTQ+ couples meet online.
Dating apps can greatly expand your social circle, too, Kim argues. He cites a study showing that people who met online are more likely to hail from interracial, interreligious, and different educational backgrounds. Kim also points to evidence that connecting that way can lead to happier and stronger marriages.
Yes, dating apps have their trust issues and horror stories. But the benefits that Kim highlights offer some compelling reasons not to ghost them.
