An investigative book released this week details how artificial‑intelligence tools were used to fabricate a phone call that mimicked Italian minister Guido Crosetto’s voice, implicating consultancy firm Arup in a fraud scheme.
The facts
The volume, titled Il falso perfetto (The Perfect Fake), is authored by journalist Emilio D’Angelo. It documents a case in which a cloned audio file of Crosetto was allegedly employed to deceive a third party, prompting a financial transaction that benefitted Arup. The book includes a preface by historian Luciano Canfora, who frames the episode as a warning about emerging digital threats.
Analysis
According to D’Angelo, the fraud leveraged deep‑learning voice synthesis to produce a convincing impersonation, bypassing traditional verification methods. Arup, a global engineering and consulting firm, is named as the intermediary that coordinated the deceptive call. Critics argue that the investigation highlights gaps in regulatory oversight of AI‑generated media and the ease with which such tools can be weaponised. Stakeholders include technology providers, legal authorities, and organisations that rely on voice authentication.