But what happens when the technology gets into the wrong hands?
"Cyber criminals have learned to use AI to deceive us," says Former FBI operative Eric O'Neill. "That old technique in espionage of deception."
The newest scam -- leveraging your trust by impersonating a loved one in distress. This time, it's using your phone's video chat feature, cloning your loved one's voice and using their image.
"You actually see that loved one with a FaceTime or a video call saying this to you," O'Neill said. "That can hype up the urgency and the deception in the attack. It only takes a little bit of someone's voice and an image to get that avatar to say anything that they want."
O'Neill specialized in counterintelligence and is now using that experience to stop cyber criminals in their tracks.
"The idea of counterintelligence is learning all of the techniques and tactics of your adversary, and deploying those techniques and tactics in order to defend against them in order to catch these spies and terrorists," he said.
As scammers plot ways to exploit confusion and spread fear, there are steps to take to protect yourself.
"One thing you can do with your family is use a codeword," O'Neill said.
While emotions can run high in what may seem like an emergency situation, try to pause to look for any visual clues that it's a scam.
"You want to look out for different artifacts," O'Neill said. "AI is getting better and better, but it will still glitch a little bit. It will blink weirdly, the mouth won't sync up quite right."
If the speech sounds off, O'Neill says, trust your gut.
"In that moment, you have to take a step back, not succumb to the pressure and make sure that you're thinking," he said.
For more tips on how to protect yourself from cyber criminals, O'Neill has a book out now titled "Spies, Lies, and Cybercrime."
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