When the primary query directed at Greg Abel, Berkshire Hathaway’s new CEO, on the firm’s annual shareholder assembly Saturday got here from “Warren from Omaha,” it appeared like a tongue-in-cheek sendup highlighting how Warren Buffett, the investing legend who led the conglomerate for six many years, continued to have an indelible impression even with out day-to-day management.
However this was extra than simply an inside company joke.
Abel informed the viewers that the stunt, which included video of Buffett showing at a microphone carrying a darkish swimsuit, didn’t contain the participation of the previous CEO (who was legitimately within the viewers). Quite, it was a deepfake — a technologically-generated avatar that seemed and appeared like Buffett — created to illustrate the cybersecurity dangers made attainable by latest advances in synthetic intelligence.
“Here is the fascinating factor: That was performed with zero enter from Warren. We had been in a position to get hold of that with info that is on the market and replicate these actions and that voice,” Abel informed the gang.
Deepfake Warren Buffett mimicked the true Oracle of Omaha’s tone of voice and cadence, and threw in a couple of realistic-sounding particulars, like being 95 years previous and having a fondness for Cherry Coke.
Whereas Berkshire Hathaway is a firm with a $1 trillion market cap and $400 billion in money readily available, the specter of AI-augmented cybersecurity breaches is a larger threat than market volatility. Abel mentioned the corporate is taking the hazards critically.
“The fact is that is what we’re coping with after we take into consideration Berkshire and the way we’ve got to defend it each day,” he informed shareholders.
Buffett himself had raised the specter of know-how advancing to the purpose the place deepfakes grew to become subtle sufficient to idiot even astute observers — himself included — earlier. At Berkshire’s 2024 assembly, he spoke of an encounter with a deepfake video of himself that was lifelike sufficient for him to perceive how somebody could possibly be tricked into sending cash to a scammer.
Whereas he acknowledged that AI could possibly be useful, he expressed appreciable wariness round the way it could possibly be exploited by cybercriminals.
AI makes it simpler for crooks to impersonate folks through voice cloning and movies created with publicly out there knowledge, like the type Berkshire used to create its deepfake Buffett. In accordance to one estimate, the variety of AI-facilitated scams exploded by greater than 1,200% in 2025 alone.
“I do suppose, as somebody who doesn’t perceive a rattling factor about it, it has monumental potential for good and massive potential for hurt,” Buffett mentioned final 12 months.
Adam Patti, CEO of VistaShares, says it is a good signal that Abel is attuned to the dangers in addition to the potential AI poses for Berkshire’s numerous companies.
“The deepfake is one little output of what’s coming,” he tells Cash. “It’s a world arms race… I believe we’re actually going into uncharted territory, and that’s a main threat for the world. We want to have the opportunity to determine what’s actual and what’s not.”
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