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Podcast Episode

80: “Dark Side of the Boom” Author Patrick Coughlin on AI Scams

Washington AI Network with Tammy Haddad··24 August 2026·21 min

About this episode

On this episode of the Washington AI Network podcast, host Tammy Haddad talks with Savi Security co-founder and CEO Patrick Coughlin, author of “Dark Side of the Boom: How Scammers Hijack the AI Revolution,” about how AI has made sophisticated, personalized scams cheap enough to target ordinary families, not just high-value government or corporate victims. They dig into why digital fraud — now estimated at nearly $200 billion in annual U.S. losses — has become the fastest-growing crime in the country, why Meta reportedly earns 10% of its revenue from fraudulent advertisers, and why Coughlin thinks federal "know your customer" rules for AI access, not a state-by-state patchwork, are the fix Washington keeps avoiding.