Frauds To Air Pollution, AI Has Got You

It's not just that AI is expected to transform news, from creation to consumption, but AI is the news too. Every tech player worth their salt is on the AI bandwagon today, and if they are not, you're looking at a company that no longer exists. As journalists our inboxes are flooded with press releases about old wine in new AI bottles, or to put it simply, applications and more with AI capabilities added and companies touting it as the next big thing in the space.

In all this hype, it's difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. So, when UK-based mobile operator O2 revealed they had created a human-like bot they called Daisy, an AI ‘Granny' to answer calls in real time from fraudsters, keeping them on the phone and away from customers for as long as possible. It seemed like a great way to leverage AI. O2 wasn't the first to think of this. An Aussie tech company did it in 2023, but thanks to smart marketing, O2 got a lot of positive coverage for what it did using AI. After all, who doesn't like to sock it to the fraudsters who frustrate you no end?

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but is this best way of leveraging AI to combat fraud calls? What O2 did was set up numbers where this AI tool answered the call and disseminated those numbers to databases that spammers use. Sure, the fraudster might get conned once, but do we seriously expect them to fall for it again, and again? I'm sure the fraudsters had a cheat sheet going in no time, explaining how to figure if it was 'Granny' on the other side.

Smart marketing by O2 undoubtedly, but such AI use cases don't do much about the deluge of such spam/fraud calls. However, closer home, Airtel unveiled a network-based, AI powered solution in September to combat spam and fraud. The system alerts customers in real-time to all suspected calls and SMS. Every call and SMS pass through filters at the network and IT-system layers, and this is done in milliseconds. It's free and auto activated, and no app download is required.

I am an Airtel subscriber, and this feature has helped me tremendously. For a few weeks, I answered calls marked as 'Suspected Spam' to figure if there were any false positives, but turns out every call marked as suspected spam was indeed spam. Does Airtel catch every spam call? No, they are a long way away. But the point is, this is a far more useful case of leveraging AI to combat a major social problem today.  

Speaking of problems, for those of us living in the National Capital Region, there is no problem more pressing than air pollution. An online calculator that converts AQI level and hours exposed to impact on your health in cigarettes is enough to horrify even chain smokers. But just as with spam, AI can also help with air pollution.

With its predictive and adaptive capabilities AI can identify sources, predict trends and help optimise strategies to manage air pollution. When combined with smart traffic management to reduce vehicular pollution AI could help Indian cities breathe easier. The question is, will we leverage it or just create some models for marketing impact? This week we have a great feature on how AI can find the solution for Delhi's and indeed India's pollution woes.

Delhi Pollution: Can AI Find The Solution?

Here are a few other can't miss stories on AI from our recent coverage

Young Leaders Are Embracing AI To Drive Impact At Work: Study 

India A Leader In AI-Driven Sustainability: IBM Report 

Uber's Gig Workers Now Include Coders For Hire On AI Projects