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Marco Rubio impersonation ‘really a warning for everyone’ about new AI-powered threats

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Someone reportedly used artificial intelligence-powered software to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a series of voice and text messages to foreign ministers, a governor and a member of Congress, The Washington Post reported.

The newspaper cited an unnamed senior U.S. official and a State Department cable.

The Post said that officials haven’t identified the culprit but believe they were trying to gain access to information or accounts.

The Rubio impostor created a Signal account with a fake email address for the secretary of state.

“The actor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals and in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal,” said the cable, according to The Post’s story.

A senior State Department official told The National News Desk via an emailed statement that they are investigating the matter.

“The Department takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard its information and continuously takes steps to improve the department’s cybersecurity posture to prevent future incidents,” the official said in the statement. “For security reasons, and due to our ongoing investigation, we are not in a position to offer further details at this time.”

AI expert Anton Dahbura said the Rubio impostor was using technology that has emerged over the last several years.

AI is now publicly available that can capture a person’s voice from a video or audio clip and then generate an impersonation.

And an even more dangerous form of that technology is emerging that could allow a scammer to impersonate someone else’s voice in real time.

“It’s an indicator of things to come,” said Dahbura, the co-director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy. “It’s what we call reality hijacking.”

The FBI warned in May of bad actors using text messages and AI-generated voice messages to impersonate senior government officials.

The FBI said the scammers would send their victims a malicious link under the guise of transitioning the conversation to a separate messaging platform.

Dahbura said the Rubio impersonation involved hacking and social engineering efforts.

“It takes a bit of effort to fool high-ranking government officials in the U.S. or elsewhere. But it’s really a warning for everyone,” Dahbura said. “It’s not that difficult to get someone’s phone number and call them and say that you’re from their bank or the FBI or the sheriff’s office or anything and perpetrate scams. So, it’s taking scams to a whole new level.”

The platforms that allow people, often overseas, to generate an AI-powered voice impersonation work in just seconds.

And Dahbura said the safeguards on those sites aren’t enough.

He also said these incidents show the need for federal AI regulations.

A bad actor can make a fake recording with just a bit of audio they grab from social media, for example.

It’s even easier to impersonate a public figure like Rubio, with his voice on hours of video clips posted across the internet.

“It’s a pretty tall order to be able to counteract that,” said Dahbura, mentioning audio watermarks as one potential tool.

Dahbura said AI, like other technology, can be used for both good and bad.

But it might become increasingly difficult to keep a lid on malevolent uses.

“Seeing is believing. Hearing is believing. That’s our last bastion of defense for authenticating who we’re interacting with, and that’s pretty much gone,” Dahbura said.



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Mindsprint enhances ProcureSPRINT™ with Agentic AI to unlock up to 15% in procurement cost efficiencies

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SINGAPORE, July 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Mindsprint, a technology firm offering purpose-built AI-led solutions to modernize enterprise operations, today announced significant advancements to ProcureSPRINT™, its enterprise-grade AI platform designed to optimize procurement operations, accelerate decision-making, and deliver measurable cost efficiencies.

Mindsprint enhances ProcureSPRINT™ with Agentic AI to unlock up to 15% in procurement cost efficiencies

Building on its proven foundation, ProcureSPRINT™ now integrates advanced Agentic AI capabilities, empowering organizations to automate complex procurement processes, enhance supplier collaboration, and unlock hidden value levers that can drive procurement cost reductions of up to 15 percent.

ProcureSPRINT™ is built on a secure, scalable cloud infrastructure and offers a modular, plug-and-play architecture that meets the needs of procurement teams at varying maturity levels. Its Agentic AI-powered recommendation engine provides actionable insights to both operational teams and C-level leaders, ensuring organizations can achieve faster cycle times, improved supplier performance, and greater procurement transparency.

“As enterprises evolve, so must their procurement function. The latest enhancements to ProcureSPRINT™ reflect our commitment to strengthening the platform with advanced AI & intelligent automation to deliver practical insights that help organizations reduce costs, improve compliance, and achieve operational resilience,” said G Venkataramanan (GV), Head of Intelligence Enterprise Operations, Mindsprint. “Our Agentic AI approach allows teams to shift from manual execution to more autonomous, insight-driven procurement, delivering faster outcomes with reduced effort.”

ProcureSPRINT™’s suite of intelligent agents supports every stage of the procurement process, including:

  • The Onboarding Assistant Agent streamlines supplier registration through a self-service portal.

  • The RFx Agent simplifies competitive bidding and reverse auctions.

  • The Deal Advisor Agent provides AI-enabled recommendations for award decisions that maximize savings and minimize risk.

  • The Shipment Sentinel Agent offers real-time visibility into shipments and supplier performance.

In addition, the platform offers an advanced, digitized invoice processing system that supports omnichannel document capture, multi-lingual intelligent data extraction, real-time validation, and seamless ERP integration. Organizations using ProcureSPRINT™ achieve over 70 percent touchless invoice processing, significantly reducing manual workload and processing time.



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Impostor uses AI to impersonate Rubio and contact foreign and US officials : NPR

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a signing ceremony for a peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the State Department, June 27, 2025, in Washington.

Mark Schiefelbein/AP


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Mark Schiefelbein/AP

WASHINGTON — The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats of attempts to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and possibly other officials using technology driven by artificial intelligence, according to two senior officials and a cable sent last week to all embassies and consulates.

The warning came after the department discovered that an impostor posing as Rubio had attempted to reach out to at least three foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor, according to the July 3 cable, which was first reported by The Washington Post.

The recipients of the scam messages, which were sent by text, Signal and voice mail, were not identified in the cable, a copy of which was shared with The Associated Press.

“The State Department is aware of this incident and is currently monitoring and addressing the matter,” department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters. “The department takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard its information and continuously take steps to improve the department’s cybersecurity posture to prevent future incidents.”

She declined to comment further due to “security reasons” and the ongoing investigation.

It’s the latest instance of a high-level Trump administration figure targeted by an impersonator, with a similar incident revealed in May involving President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles. The misuse of AI to deceive people is likely to grow as the technology improves and becomes more widely available, and the FBI warned this past spring about “malicious actors” impersonating senior U.S. government officials in a text and voice messaging campaign.

The hoaxes involving Rubio had been unsuccessful and “not very sophisticated,” one of the officials said. Nonetheless, the second official said the department deemed it “prudent” to advise all employees and foreign governments, particularly as efforts by foreign actors to compromise information security increase.

The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“There is no direct cyber threat to the department from this campaign, but information shared with a third party could be exposed if targeted individuals are compromised,” the cable said.

The FBI has warned in a public service announcement about a “malicious” campaign relying on text messages and AI-generated voice messages that purport to come from a senior U.S. official and that aim to dupe other government officials as well as the victim’s associates and contacts.

This is not the first time that Rubio has been impersonated in a deepfake. This spring, someone created a bogus video of him saying he wanted to cut off Ukraine’s access to Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service. Ukraine’s government later rebutted the false claim.

Several potential solutions have been put forward in recent years to the growing misuse of AI for deception, including criminal penalties and improved media literacy. Concerns about deepfakes have also led to a flood of new apps and AI systems designed to spot phonies that could easily fool a human.

The tech companies working on these systems are now in competition against those who would use AI to deceive, according to Siwei Lyu, a professor and computer scientist at the University at Buffalo. He said he’s seen an increase in the number of deepfakes portraying celebrities, politicians and business leaders as the technology improves.

Just a few years ago, fakes contained easy-to-spot flaws — inhuman voices or mistakes like extra fingers — but now the AI is so good, it’s much harder for a human to spot, giving deepfake makers an advantage.

“The level of realism and quality is increasing,” Lyu said. “It’s an arms race, and right now the generators are getting the upper hand.”

The Rubio hoax comes after text messages and phone calls went to elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures from someone who seemed to have gained access to the contacts in Wiles’ personal cellphone, The Wall Street Journal reported in May.

Some of those who received calls heard a voice that sounded like Wiles, which may have been generated by AI, according to the newspaper. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles’ number, the report said. The government was investigating.



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Tuya Inc. (NYSE:TUYA) Among Forbes China Top 50 AI Tech Enterprises – Insider Monkey

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Tuya Inc. (NYSE:TUYA) Among Forbes China Top 50 AI Tech Enterprises  Insider Monkey



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