Meet Daisy, the AI Granny who’s here to waste scammers’ lives
Marco van Hurne
I build Agentic AI companies | Data Science Strategist @ Beyond the Cloud | Data Governance | AI Compliance Officer Certified
Today, I would like to talk about Daisy, or should I say dAIsy, the new AI grandma from O2 that is fighting scammers AND straight-up annihilating their will to live.
She will let you forget sweet cookies and bedtime stories. This granny is serving cold, calculated revenge to scammers everywhere. She is programmed to waste as much of their time as possible.
Daisy traps these crooks in never-ending, mind-numbing conversations, like the ones you used to have with your ex.
Think of her as the ultimate passive-aggressive payback machine: "Oh dear, which button should I press again? My eyes aren’t what they used to be"
Honestly, the audacity of these scammers thinking they can outwit AI Granny is hilarious. Daisy plays the perfect clueless pensioner who “just doesn’t get technology” and she is turning every scammer’s dream heist into their personal nightmare.
All those fake URLs and demands for bank details sent to unsuspecting seniors. Well, Daisy dodges them with her loooooong, meandering responses that lead precisely to……nowhere.
Daisy is scambaiting on steroids, and honestly, it’s hilariously glorious.
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How dAIsy works
Daisy isn’t a cute gimmick, if you were thinking that earlier on.
Daisy is trained with real scammer data in partnership with legendary scambaiter Jim Browning, you know, the YouTube icon who has been exposing tech support scams for years. I have watched his shows on Facebook and Youtube for days on end. And it’s always so satisfying to see him portray a granny that doesn’t know diddly squat about tech and drags the conversation on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on….
You get the picture.
Daisy's mission is to keep scammers tied up on the phone for hours, so they have less time to target real victims.
It’s a little poetic justice, served up cold by AI.
By the way, Daisy isn’t just some button you add to your phone.
Jim has put Daisy on the scammer’s "mugs list". Yeah, that is a real thing, meaning scammers actually call her thinking she’s an easy target.
Hahahahahaha. Joke’s on them.
This gran works 24/7, and she is tirelessly fielding calls from fraudsters. She is leaving them yelling at their headsets while she innocently asks for help understanding her “password”.
Jim, I just love you, man.
One scam at a time
According to Murray Mackenzie, who happens to be the Director of Fraud at Virgin Media O2, who financed and built this beaut, Daisy is part of the company’s broader war on scams.
They are investing in firewalls, spam detection, and now…grannies?
But hey, who better to fight scammers than the demographic they target the most. And judging by a recent survey, 71% of people want to get back at scammers (source: O2 unveils Daisy, the AI granny wasting scammers’ time - Virgin Media O2).
Daisy is the perfect passive-aggressive avenger!
Want to hear Daisy in action? Check out this YouTube clip. It’s as satisfying as watching scammers rage-quit their own game.
AI and scams is a love-hate relationship
Daisy may be a shining beacon of hope, but AI is usually the bad guy in the story. Scammers are using AI to scam people better. Here’s the grim reality, backed by real research:
Some more cyber resilience tips for seniors
I wrote about my experiences with teaching senior citizens how to dodge cybercrime. In this article, I share some of the tips I give to them:
And to all you fraudsters out there: better clear your schedule. Daisy’s got all the time in the world.
Signing off - Marco
Well, that's a wrap for today. Tomorrow, I'll have a fresh episode of TechTonic Shifts for you. If you enjoy my writing and want to support my work, feel free to buy me a coffee ??
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Project Manager@ NEST | Project Planning, Technology, Educational Services, Training
1 小时前I love this! I made a clip about her last week; she apparently held some callers for about 40 minutes ??.
Technical & Business Consultant
3 小时前This is such a clever take on AI, Marco! Daisy, the AI granny, is turning the tables on scammers, wasting their time with her clueless charm and teaching them a lesson in patience. Hilarious and brilliant! Big kudos to Jim Browning for making this happen! ??
Head of ML/AI at SilkData | AI Consulting & Architecture | NLP, Document AI | Scientific Computing | Python | Lead Developer | Mentor | PhD in Physics
4 小时前Fun! But, as scamming is a worldwide issue, it would be better if O2 make their tool open source - then smaller providers and banks in many jurisdictions can use, reconfigure or fine-tune it