A high-level digital deception recently triggered alarms inside the U.S. government. A Signal account, created using the name of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, contacted senior officials —including foreign ministers, a governor, and a member of Congress — with AI-generated audio that convincingly imitated Rubio’s voice.

This was not a prank or a political stunt. It was a clear warning about how easily trust can be exploited when artificial intelligence is used to impersonate public figures.

The incident is one of the clearest signs yet that synthetic media is crossing from novelty to threat. With just a few voice clips and an AI tool, individuals can now impersonate anyone. That opens the door to a wave of reputational attacks that are more personal, more precise, and more damaging than anything we have seen before.

Just imagine the consequences if impersonators used AI to release “leaked” audio of a Fortune 500 CEO admitting to fraud. The........

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