The world is an extraordinarily complex place. I feel like we’ve only just come to terms with the concept of images being photoshopped, and now AI deepfake voices and videos are making it difficult to trust anything. It’s important to listen to that voice inside your head as one Ferrari exec did, as the company likely avoided a costly and embarrassing mistake by outsmarting the crooks in a deliciously ironic way.
Akio Toyoda can’t blame AI for the loss of confidence in his company. No, friends, this is a classic case of a company doing too much too fast. Japanese car companies as a group are, generally, in a weird spot, which is why it’s rumored that Mitsubishi is going to join the Honda/Nissan software alliance.
And, finally, let’s end this episode of The Morning Dump with a bit of news about the upcoming Cadillac Celestiq.
How A Book Beat An AI Deepfake
The scene painted by this Bloomberg article is quite concerning. An unnamed executive at Ferrari gets a bunch of WhatsApp messages from CEO Benedetto Vigna saying a big deal is coming and utmost secrecy is required.
It’s a little dicey, involves a lot of money, and must be kept secretive for the moment, according to the report. Vigna is using a different number because he doesn’t want anyone to know. The exec should expect an NDA to sign ASAP.
Obviously, no one would want an exec to send a bunch of money because of an email and a WhatsApp message in the Year of our Logano 2024, but then a phone call followed from Vigna:
The voice impersonating Vigna was convincing — a spot-on imitation of the southern Italian accent.
The Vigna deepfaker began explaining that he was calling from a different mobile phone number because he needed to discuss something confidential — a deal that could face some China-related snags and required an unspecified currency-hedge transaction to be carried out.
The executive was shocked and started to have suspicions, according to the people. He began to pick up on the slightest of mechanical intonations that only deepened his suspicious.
“Sorry, Benedetto, but I need to identify you,” the executive said. He posed a question: What was the title of the book Vigna had just recommended to him a few days earlier
I gotta say, this simple article has precipitated a flurry of thoughts in my brain.
First of all, great reporting by Bloomberg. Second, there are plenty of apps that exist to make a voice AI bot in about 11 minutes, and there’s a lot of public audio from a CEO to make this work.
Third, the world is an exceedingly complex place full of digital bad actors. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen CDK Global hand over potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to hackers. Hell, even applying to a job at a parts store five years ago is risky!
Fourth, great work by the exec here to have the presence of mind to combat all of this.
Fifth, and finally, the irony of how this all was resolved is almost too perfect. Not only was an AI social engineering/deepfake attack repelled by a book, the book itself is so on-the-nose you’d think they’re making it up: Decalogue of Complexity: Acting, Learning, and Adapting in the Incessant Becoming of the World
Here’s the (translated) description:
Why does complexity always increase? What is the dilemma of complexity? What does it mean to dance with complex systems? What are the implications of the law of necessary variety? What is the connection between paradox and metamorphosis? These are some of the questions that this Decalogue seeks to answer. In the sea magnum of existing literature on complexity, ten topics treated in a synthetic manner can represent for the novice reader an opportunity to discover a fascinating theme and for the expert reader an opportunity to reread, with a different thread, key themes of the subject.
The book seems to specifically be about systems complexity as it relates to business, and, here, we see an example of how complexity (in terms of communications and business structure) almost contributed to a serious loss of capital. Wild stuff.
Akio Toyoda: ‘I Can’t Be A Director Next Year’ If I Keep Losing Support This Fast
Former CEO and current Toyoda Chairman Akio Toyoda withstood an attempt to remove him as a director over all the issues Toyota has had with certification and its self-admitted exhausting work culture.
Now, per Reuters, we’re hearing from Toyoda himself that if he can’t turn it around he might be out next year:
Last month’s result marked the lowest support rating ever for a director in Toyota’s history, the 68-year-old grandson of the company’s founder said in an interview by the automaker’s own news outlet.
“If it continues at this pace, I can’t be a director next year,” Toyoda said.
His support rating among foreign institutional investors was particularly weak at 34%. Ahead of the meeting, proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis both took issue with the way Toyota has dealt with certification testing violations.
I think, given how this came out, one shouldn’t rush to the conclusion that Toyoda is toast. It’s hard to imagine investors tossing Toyoda after making them so much money and because of his family, but it’s a sign that Toyoda is at least is pretending to take what’s happened seriously.
Mitsubishi-Nissan-Honda?
Japanese automakers are, to varying degrees, enjoying a lot of success right now as the companies have generally taken a more cautious approach to electrification/automated driving/software.
This works for now but what of the future? The Rivian/VW deal is proof that software/automated driving is super hard and having every company try to do a version themselves is awfully expensive.
It’s therefore not a huge shock to hear that Mitsubishi, which was wedded to Nissan a few years ago, might be joining the previously announced Honda/Nissan tie-up.
This comes via Nikkei, which first reported the news:
Mitsubishi will work with Honda and Nissan to finalize specific details of the alliance. The three companies intend to standardize the in-vehicle software that controls the vehicle. Nissan and Honda are expected to jointly develop the basic software, and will discuss its use in Mitsubishi vehicles.
It would be utter lunacy for Mitsubishi to try and do this on its own.
Every Celestiq You See Is Going To Be Special
With all the problems GM’s current generation Ultium EV platform caused on rollout, I assumed the fancy $340,000 Cadillac Celestiq was a vehicle we wouldn’t see anytime soon.
Our pal Mark Phelan over at the Detroit Free Press went to Cadillac’s new Cadillac House at Vanderbilt in Michigan to get a tour of where fancy people get to design their fancy cars to fit their fancy standards:
Every Celestiq owner will sit down with GM designers to select their car’s interior materials and appearance. A selection of fabrics, leathers, woods and more hides behind wooden panels in the open-air space of Cadillac House, a former cafeteria that was restored and expanded to create areas for client consultations, viewings and design work.
Many luxury automakers have this service, though it’s not as common for American luxury brands. Also, enjoy this little bit about how the center got its name:
The building’s name honors Suzanne Vanderbilt, who became one of the auto industry’s first full-fledged designers when GM hired her from The Pratt Institute in 1955. She was one of a group dubbed the “Damsels of Design” for publicity purposes. Ever wonder how long it takes an idea to evolve from innovative to patronizing? Now you know. Vanderbilt was initially pigeonholed into giving cars a “feminine touch,” but persevered at GM into the 1970s, working on a number of concept and production cars, including some Cadillacs.
Henry Payne would never…
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Childish Gambino, aka Donald Glover, aka aka Bando Stone, has a new one out, so please enjoy “Lithonia” and all it portends for his future. Especially the horror movie twist at the end. Also, side note, I just learned that “This is America” started out as a Drake diss track, which makes me like it even more (TH and I as a Torontonian and a Houstonian, respectively, have earned our enmity towards Drake the hard way).
The Big Question
What one question could someone ask you that would indicate that you are/are not an AI deepfake?
One of my neighbors in the northern Detroit suburbs had a Celestiq in their driveway this weekend (same house also had the Acura ZDX and Honda Prologue well before their public on-sale dates).
Honestly, from the street at least, it’s underwhelming. Yes it’s big and imposing like a top-tier Caddy should be, but it really just looks like a squished Lyriq.
“What one question could someone ask you that would indicate that you are/are not an AI deepfake?”
What’s wrong with Wolfie?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MT_u9Rurrqg
Your foster parents are dead.