There was something strange about her voice, they thought. It was not unfamiliar but, after a while, it started to go all over the place.
Science presenter Liz Bonninâs accent, as regular BBC viewers know, is Irish. But this voice message, ostensibly granting permission to use her likeness in an ad campaign, seemed to place her on the other side of the world.
The message, it turns out, was a fake â AI-generated to mimic Bonninâs voice. Her management team got hold of it after they saw the presenterâs face on online ads for an insect repellant spray this week, something for which she did not sign up.
âAt the very beginning it does sound like me but then I sound a bit Australian and then itâs definitely an English woman by the end. Itâs all fragmented and thereâs no cadence to it,â said Bonnin, best known for presenting Bang Goes The Theory and Our Changing Planet.
âIt does feel like a violation and itâs not a pleasant thing,â she added. âThank goodness it was just an insect repellant spray and that I wasnât supposedly advertising something really horrid!â
Howard Carter, the chief executive of Incognito, the company behind the botched campaign, claims he was sent a number of voice messages by someone he thought was Bonnin. He said these voice messages âclinched itâ for him that he was really speaking to her.
He had previously sought her endorsement before being approached by a Facebook profile adopting Bonninâs identity. He claims the messages exchanged between the two led him to believe she was the real deal despite thinking the profile was âa bit suspectâ.
The person assuming Bonninâs identity gave Carter a phone number and email address. They also provided him with contact details from someone pretending to be from the Wildlife Trusts, the charity where Bonnin serves as president. He said the deal was negotiated via WhatsApp and emails. He also claims he spoke to one of the scammers impersonating Bonnin over the phone on at least one occasion.
On 13 March, Carter received a contract via email that he believed was electronically signed by Bonnin. The company sent £20,000 to an account linked to a digital bank on 15 March, bank statements show. Images of Bonnin for use in the campaign were sent five days later.
Further emails sent by Incognito went unanswered. The campaign launched on Monday, using quotes and images sent by the scammers. Hours later, Bonnin said on X that she did not agree to any endorsement with the company.
The person impersonating Bonnin texted Carter on Tuesday to apologise and said she was not handling her social media and also cited server and security issues. At this point, the penny dropped for Carter that he had been duped.
âIâm very sorry for what the company has gone through. Itâs not fun for them at all, but itâs a violation on both our parts. It is a reminder that, if it looks too good to be true and too easy, or a little bit strange, triple check or quadruple check,â said Bonnin.
She added: âIf somebody contacts you and says, âHey, letâs not go through the professional routeâ, then beware!â
Carter claims he did not get the deal signed off through Bonninâs management agency because the person impersonating her said âshe was doing us a favour, provided we do it direct with her & not involve her main agencyâ.
In a voice note heard by the Guardian, the AI-generated Bonnin says a number of stilted phrases, such as âI must thank you for providing clarity on the direction you envision for our collaboration.â
Two AI experts who assessed the voice note agreed it was likely to have been artificially generated. Surya Koppisetti, a senior applied scientist at image detection startup Reality Defender said: âThere are gaps and recitation speed issues that are consistent with AI-generated speech. The dialogue is inconsistent in accent.â Koppisetti added that the speech quality was âunusually clear despite the noiseâ.
Michael Keeling, a senior data scientist at the AI technology company Faculty, said the âsteady, monotoneâ artificial background noise in the message âis a classic way of making something seem more realisticâ. âIf youâre listening to this from your phone on a busy street, itâs much easier to slip through that way,â he added.
Bonnin said the incident is a âwarning messageâ about the potential pitfalls of AI. âThere are many ways AI can be used to benefit society, weâve heard it can be used to identify cancers, but it is also deeply unconcernedly not regulated enough. The technology is only going to get better and more sophisticated,â she added.
Incognito said they have reported the incident to the police and with their bank. In a statement, they said: âWe hope [our CEO] falling for this elaborate scam will be a warning to others not to fall for the same or similar ruses. Sophisticated criminals using AI and other computer-generated communications have targeted Howard and Incognito a few times.
âUnderstandably, many companies do not want the public to hear theyâve been deceived because of the embarrassment and shame. As an ethical, transparently run company, we feel it is our duty to alert people and their businesses about the rise of clever deceptions like this. Howard and everybody else in our organisation apologises to Liz Bonnin and her associates for any harm we have inadvertently caused.â
The BBC did not respond to a request for comment. The Wildlife Trusts declined to comment.