Lindsey Graham says his phone was hacked by a Chuck Schumer impersonator and the FBI is now involved because he risks personal information being exposed
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham believed he was communicating with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer before discovering his phone had been hacked, prompting him to hand it over to authorities for investigation.
The South Carolina senator shocked a crowd at the Hill & Valley Forum on Capitol Hill when he made his admission Wednesday.
He announced the breach during a discussion about the need to regulate artificial intelligence.
“You know, my phone is in the hands of the FBI now,” Graham told the crowd.
“So I get a message, I think, from Schumer, it’s not from Schumer, and the next thing you know it’s from my phone, I don’t know what.”
“Apparently anything you can create can be hacked,” the Republican continued.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the FBI has his phone and believes it may have been hacked
The Republican from South Carolina made this during a speech at a summit on security and regulation of artificial intelligence. The session Graham spoke at was titled ‘The Future of Dual-Use AI and the Explosion of AI Apps’
He was responding to a question from Daniel Gross, the former head of AI at Apple, about whether entrepreneurs should be fed up with spies and espionage attempts.
Graham then came up with the idea of deploying the technology workers as reservists in the armed forces to advise on AI and software-related matters.
“The bottom line is, I see this as a way to not stop,” the senator said, apparently in reference to the use of AI for espionage.
“China will not play by our rules. So we are going to fight for our lives,” he added.
Roelof Botha from the well-known venture capital company Sequoia Capital was also on stage.
Their talk was titled “The Future of Dual-Use AI and the Explosion of AI Apps.”
In a statement, Graham spokesperson Taylor Reidy confirmed that the matter involving the senator’s phone was under investigation.
“The Sergeant at Arms is investigating a possible hack of Senator Graham’s phone,” she told DailyMail.com.
The incident comes the same week that British singer-songwriter FKA Twigs testified before the Senate about creating a deepfake AI version of himself and the dangers the technology poses to creators.
Graham said he thought he was communicating with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-Y, before turning over his phone to the FBI.
She pushed for greater federal oversight of AI, as did many of the speakers at the Capitol Hill summit.
“What is not acceptable is when my art and my identity can simply be taken by a third party and wrongfully exploited for their own benefit without my consent, due to the lack of appropriate legal control,” the singer testified.
Several AI-related bills have been introduced in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, but no major legislation regulating the technology has yet been passed into law.