Friday round-up: Deepfake fraud | China rail tunnel record | New FIEC president

Unfortunately, technological breakthroughs don’t always yield positive results.

And in the case of artificial intelligence, it hasn’t taken criminals long to find a nefarious use for it.

This week saw engineering firm Arup confirm that one of its employees fell victim to a suspected deepfake scam that persuaded them to transfer millions of dollars to the criminals’ bank accounts.

It’s something that all construction companies may have to be on their guard against in the future.

A breakthrough of a more positive kind came in the form of a tunnelling record for China.

China Railway Engineering Group claims it has completed the challenging construction of the country’s longest single-bore, double-track railway tunnel.

And finally, it is all change at the European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC) which has announced a new president to succeed Philip Crampton, to represent the sector’s interests ahead of European elections this summer.

Image of the week

Webuild workers adapt to the pressure of working in the hyperbaric excavation site on the Casalnuovo tunnel in a special compensation chamber (Image: Webuild)

Webuild construction workers sit in a special compensation chamber that allows them to acclimatise to working in a hyberbaric atmosphere.

The Italian construction group is undertaking what it claims is Italy’s first excavation in a hyperbaric atmosphere to build part of a high-speed railway tunnel that sits under the water table.

Read more about the unusual tunnelling technique here.