Senators grill AI companies on how they're combating scammers

The letters, sent to companies including Google, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI ask them to detail their efforts to prevent scammers from using their services.

Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., sent letters to America’s leading artificial intelligence companies Thursday morning demanding information about how they are handling AI-enabled scams.

The letters, sent to Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Perplexity and xAI, ask the companies to share details about their efforts to prevent scammers from using their services.

Among other requests, the letters inquire about the companies’ systems for tracking potential scams or fraud incidents that use their platforms, measures to authenticate users and how the companies already cooperate with the government to combat fraud.

“With advancements in AI, scams will continue to grow in sophistication, frequency, and impact,” the senators wrote in the letter. “In the early phases of a scam, criminals can use generative AI to quickly identify and then collect details on their targets, enabling them to create tailor-made scams.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., on July 16.Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images“Once armed with information like addresses, account numbers, and birthdates, bad actors can more realistically impersonate a victim’s bank, a government office, or even a member of their own family in an attempt to gain control of accounts or induce fraudulent payments,” they continued.