Tom Hanks Warns Fans: 'That's Not Me in Your DMs - It's an AI Clone'

Max Sterling, 6/23/2025In a world where AI can clone voices and faces, Tom Hanks warns fans of potential scams lurking in their DMs. This article explores the rise of AI fakes, the difficulty in detection, and the ominous implications for trust and reality in our digital lives.

Welcome to 2025, where your mother's voice on the phone might not be your mother at all.

The digital underworld has evolved far beyond those laughably obvious Nigerian prince emails. Today's scammers are orchestrating something far more sinister – a technological sleight of hand that's turning our voices, faces, and trust against us. And they're doing it with artificial intelligence that's gotten frighteningly good at its job.

"Pretty much impossible." Those three words from Francesco Cavalli, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Sensity, should send shivers down anyone's spine. He's talking about our ability to detect these new AI-powered fakes, and coming from someone whose literal job is fighting this stuff, well... that's not exactly comforting.

Take what happened in Manitoba last winter. A woman picked up her phone to hear her son's voice – or so she thought. The cadence, the tone, the little verbal quirks she'd known for decades – all perfect. Except it wasn't him. Just an AI puppet master pulling digital strings. She got lucky, though. Something felt off enough to make her double-check.

Not everyone's spider-sense tingles at the right moment. Remember that poor finance worker who watched $25 million vanish during what seemed like a routine video call? The faces were right, the voices familiar – but it was all smoke and mirrors, a digital masquerade ball where every mask was perfect.

The pace of this technology is enough to give you whiplash. Last year, we were chuckling at that bizarre deepfake of Will Smith wrestling with physics-defying spaghetti. Now? Google's VEO3 creates videos so real that only the oddly crunchy sound of virtual pasta gives the game away. (Seriously, why can't they get that pasta sound right?)

But here's the real kicker – while we're all freaking out about video deepfakes (and the Alan Turing Institute says that's about 90% of us), the real threat might be something we're not watching closely enough. "Audio fakes are where it's at," warns Lilian Edwards from Glasgow University's Centre for Regulation of the Creative Economy. Makes sense, right? After all, a dodgy video might raise eyebrows, but a perfect voice clone? That's harder to spot than a ninja in a blackout.

The implications stretch way beyond your wallet. As Oxford University's Sandra Wachter points out, we're stumbling into an era of "unreality" where truth is becoming as slippery as a greased eel. These AI systems aren't built to tell the truth – they're designed to keep us glued to our screens, reality be damned.

The solutions sound like something out of a spy thriller. The National Cybersecurity Alliance suggests using secret code words with family and coworkers. Companies are rolling out real-time facial and voice scanning during video calls. Next thing you know, we'll all be wearing tinfoil hats and communicating through elaborate handshakes.

Perhaps most unsettling is how accessible these tools have become. Sensity found 2,298 different programs for AI face swapping, lip-syncing, and facial reenactment – many of them free and requiring about as much technical know-how as posting a selfie. "Live deepfakes in just three clicks!" they advertise, as casual as a pizza delivery app.

The UK's trying to lead the charge against this digital wild west, making both creation and sharing of deepfakes illegal. But let's be real – that's like trying to catch a tornado with a butterfly net.

In this brave new world of digital smoke and mirrors, our best defense might be good old-fashioned skepticism. When seeing isn't believing, and hearing isn't truth, maybe the answer is to question everything – even if it looks, sounds, and feels real enough to fool your own eyes and ears.

Because in the end, the most dangerous scam isn't the one that empties your bank account – it's the one that makes you question whether anything is real at all.

Welcome to 2025, where your mother's voice on the phone might not be your mother at all.The digital underworld has evolved far beyond those laughably obvious Nigerian prince emails. Today's scammers are orchestrating something far more sinister – a technological sleight of hand that's turning our voices, faces, and trust against us. And they're doing it with artificial intelligence that's gotten frighteningly good at its job."Pretty much impossible." Those three words from Francesco Cavalli, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Sensity, should send shivers down anyone's spine. He's talking about our ability to detect these new AI-powered fakes, and coming from someone whose literal job is fighting this stuff, well... that's not exactly comforting.Take what happened in Manitoba last winter. A woman picked up her phone to hear her son's voice – or so she thought. The cadence, the tone, the little verbal quirks she'd known for decades – all perfect. Except it wasn't him. Just an AI puppet master pulling digital strings. She got lucky, though. Something felt off enough to make her double-check.Not everyone's spider-sense tingles at the right moment. Remember that poor finance worker who watched $25 million vanish during what seemed like a routine video call? The faces were right, the voices familiar – but it was all smoke and mirrors, a digital masquerade ball where every mask was perfect.The pace of this technology is enough to give you whiplash. Last year, we were chuckling at that bizarre deepfake of Will Smith wrestling with physics-defying spaghetti. Now? Google's VEO3 creates videos so real that only the oddly crunchy sound of virtual pasta gives the game away. (Seriously, why can't they get that pasta sound right?)But here's the real kicker – while we're all freaking out about video deepfakes (and the Alan Turing Institute says that's about 90% of us), the real threat might be something we're not watching closely enough. "Audio fakes are where it's at," warns Lilian Edwards from Glasgow University's Centre for Regulation of the Creative Economy. Makes sense, right? After all, a dodgy video might raise eyebrows, but a perfect voice clone? That's harder to spot than a ninja in a blackout.The implications stretch way beyond your wallet. As Oxford University's Sandra Wachter points out, we're stumbling into an era of "unreality" where truth is becoming as slippery as a greased eel. These AI systems aren't built to tell the truth – they're designed to keep us glued to our screens, reality be damned.The solutions sound like something out of a spy thriller. The National Cybersecurity Alliance suggests using secret code words with family and coworkers. Companies are rolling out real-time facial and voice scanning during video calls. Next thing you know, we'll all be wearing tinfoil hats and communicating through elaborate handshakes.Perhaps most unsettling is how accessible these tools have become. Sensity found 2,298 different programs for AI face swapping, lip-syncing, and facial reenactment – many of them free and requiring about as much technical know-how as posting a selfie. "Live deepfakes in just three clicks!" they advertise, as casual as a pizza delivery app.The UK's trying to lead the charge against this digital wild west, making both creation and sharing of deepfakes illegal. But let's be real – that's like trying to catch a tornado with a butterfly net.In this brave new world of digital smoke and mirrors, our best defense might be good old-fashioned skepticism. When seeing isn't believing, and hearing isn't truth, maybe the answer is to question everything – even if it looks, sounds, and feels real enough to fool your own eyes and ears.Because in the end, the most dangerous scam isn't the one that empties your bank account – it's the one that makes you question whether anything is real at all.