Welcome to Eye on AI, with AI reporter Sharon Goldman. In this edition, a new startup is tackling AI impersonation…legal AI startup Harvey raised $160 million at an $8 billion valuation…VC ‘kingmaking’ is happening earlier than ever with AI startups…Why AI writes like that…Microsoft lowers sales staff’s growth targets for newer AI software.
A year ago, I spoke to several cybersecurity leaders at companies like SoftBank and Mastercard who were already sounding alarms about AI-powered impersonation threats, including deepfakes and voice clones. They warned that fraud would evolve quickly: The first wave of scams were about scammers using deepfakes to pretended to be someone you know. But attackers would soon begin using AI-generated video and audio to impersonate strangers from trusted sources, such as a help-desk rep from your bank or an IT administrator at work.
A year later, this is exactly what’s happening: The Identity Theft Resource Center reported a 148% surge in impersonation scams between April 2024 and March 2025, driven by scammers spinning up fake business websites, deploying lifelike AI chatbots, and generating voice agents that sound indistinguishable from real company representatives. In 2024 alone, the Federal Trade Commission recorded $2.95 billion in losses tied to impersonation scams.
