Impostor uses AI to act as a rubio and to contact foreign and American officials: NPR

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

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WASHINGTON – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs warns American diplomats for attempts to act as Minister of Foreign Affairs Marco Rubio and possibly other officials who are driven by artificial intelligence, according to two senior officials and a cable that was sent to all embassies and consulates last week.

The warning came after the department discovered that a cheaper who occurred when Rubio had tried to reach at least three Foreign Ministers, an American senator and a governor, according to the cable of 3 July, who was first reported by the Washington Post.

The recipients of the scam reports, which were sent per text, signal and voicemail, were not identified in the cable, a copy of which was shared with the Associated Press.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is aware of this incident and is currently monitoring the issue,” spokeswoman Tammy Bruce from the department told reporters. “The department takes its responsibility seriously to protect its information and take continuous steps to improve the department’s cyber security attitude to prevent future incidents.”

She refused to comment on “security reasons” and the ongoing investigation.

It is the last copy of a high-level Trump administration figure, the target of a imitator, with a similar incident that was unveiled in May, involved in President Donald Trump, Susie Wiles, the Chief of Staff. The abuse of AI to mislead people is likely to grow as technology improves and becomes more widely available, and the FBI warned last spring that “malicious actors” will occur to high US government officials in a text and voice sessing campaign.

The hoaxes involving Rubio were not successful and “not very refined,” said one of the officials. Nevertheless, the second officer said that the Department considered it “sensible” to advise all employees and foreign governments, in particular as efforts of foreign actors to endanger the increase in information security.

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

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

The FBI has warned in an announcement of the public service about a “malicious” campaign that depends on SMS messages and speech reports generated by AI that are from a high American officer and who are aimed at duping other government officials and the employees and contacts of the victim.

This is not the first time that Rubio has registered in a depth. This spring, someone made a fake video in which he said he wanted to cut off Ukraine’s access to the Starlink Internet service by Elon Musk. The government of Ukraine later displayed the false claim.

In recent years, various potential solutions have been raised for the growing abuse of AI for fraud, including criminal fines and improved media literacy. Concern about Deepfakes has also led to a stream of new apps and AI systems that are designed to recognize phonies that can easily fool a person.

The technology companies that work on these systems now compete against those who would use AI to mislead, according to Siwei Lyu, a professor and computer scientist at the University of Buffalo. He said that he has seen an increase in the number of floors that celebrities, politicians and managers portrayed as the technology improves.

Just a few years ago, fake easily contain too spot error-unpersonal voices or errors such as extra fingers but now the AI ​​is so good, it is much more difficult for a person to spot, which gives Deepfakmakers an advantage.

“The level of realism and quality is increasing,” Lyu said. “It is a weapon race, and at the moment the generators get the upper hand.”

The Rubio Hoax comes after SMS messages and phone calls have gone to chosen officials, managers and other prominent figures from someone who seemed to have received the contacts in the personal mobile phone of Wiles, the Wall Street Journal reported in May.

Some of those who received calls heard a voice that sounded like Wiles, possibly generated by AI, according to the newspaper. The messages and calls did not come from Wiles’ number, according to the report. The government was investigating.