Senate Democrats press Meta on AI safeguards as crypto scam losses mount

Two Democratic senators just put Meta on notice over what they see as a growing epidemic of AI-powered scams targeting America’s most vulnerable users. The letter, sent by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Mark Kelly of Arizona, both members of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, demands to know what safeguards the tech giant has in place to protect “at-risk users” from increasingly sophisticated fraud. What the senators are actually asking Gillibrand and Kelly zeroed in on the tools that have made modern scams nearly indistinguishable from legitimate communications: chatbots, deepfakes, and voice cloning technology. Their specific concern is older Americans, a demographic whose cognitive vulnerabilities make them disproportionately susceptible to fraud orchestrated through these AI tools. The letter is part of a broader pattern of congressional activity around AI safety that has been building through 2025 and into 2026. Prior communications from lawmakers have targeted AI interactions with minors, transparency in advertising, and content moderation practices on social platforms. This latest salvo adds elder fraud to the growing list of congressional concerns. The cryp...