O2 has introduced “AI granny” Daisy for a short period to show what could be done with artificial intelligence to counter the scourge of scammers, who have become so ubiquitous. Daisy is not a real grandmother but an AI bot created by computer scientists to combat fraud. Her task is simply to waste the time of the people who are trying to scam her. Using a mixture of ambivalence, confusion about how computers work and an eagerness to reminisce about her younger days, the “78 years young” Daisy draws sighs and snapping from fraudsters on the other end of the line

• ‘Dear, did you say pastry?’: meet the ‘AI granny’ driving scammers up the wall