Abstract
AI-powered voice scams are a fast-evolving public threat, combining rapid advances in synthetic speech technologies with sophisticated social engineering tactics. These scams are difficult to detect, exploit trust and familiarity, often resulting in deeply stigmatising experiences for those targeted. While anyone can be affected by scams, building awareness and confidence in navigating AI-related risks requires approaches tailored to the needs of diverse communities, particularly those who are more digitally excluded or marginalised. To address this, we developed AI & You—a suite of accessible, modular, and adaptable public education resources, collaboratively designed with the digital advocacy group Tactical Tech. We evaluated these resources in workshops with public learning facilitators and digital mentors from Good Things Australia. Our findings reflect on the process of designing AI safety materials, and the importance of translating AI literacy resources into actionable, contextually relevant knowledge that balances safety and risk awareness with empowerment and inclusion.
Keywords
Design Materials, Scams, Voice AI, AI Literacy
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1705
Citation
Carlon, D., Khan, A., McCosker, A., and De Cotta, T. (2026) Whose voice is it anyway?: Design resources for safely navigating deceptive AI voice scams, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1705
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Whose voice is it anyway?: Design resources for safely navigating deceptive AI voice scams
AI-powered voice scams are a fast-evolving public threat, combining rapid advances in synthetic speech technologies with sophisticated social engineering tactics. These scams are difficult to detect, exploit trust and familiarity, often resulting in deeply stigmatising experiences for those targeted. While anyone can be affected by scams, building awareness and confidence in navigating AI-related risks requires approaches tailored to the needs of diverse communities, particularly those who are more digitally excluded or marginalised. To address this, we developed AI & You—a suite of accessible, modular, and adaptable public education resources, collaboratively designed with the digital advocacy group Tactical Tech. We evaluated these resources in workshops with public learning facilitators and digital mentors from Good Things Australia. Our findings reflect on the process of designing AI safety materials, and the importance of translating AI literacy resources into actionable, contextually relevant knowledge that balances safety and risk awareness with empowerment and inclusion.