Anatomy of a recent AI robocall and how I responded to it

On Friday, I received a call from 351-300-0683 which my phone identified as suspected spam. The caller ID showed up as “Ms. Leila’s NeighborSchool”, which I can find no evidence of on the internet so I suspect it no longer exists and the phone number was reassigned. I declined the call, which sent it to voicemail. The caller left this message: Four notes: Area code 351 is not used in Cambridge. My name isn’t “Timothy”. I’ve never been a customer of Cambridge Honda. “Roger” is an AI. Roger also sent a text message: Just for kicks I called the number and had a conversation with “Roger”. Summarizing (the responses from the AI were significantly longer than how I’ve written them below): Me: Are you a person or an AI? AI: I’m an AI. Me: 351 isn’t a Cambridge area code, and the number you’re calling from came up as Ms. Leila’s NeighborSchool. Why is that? AI: I’m on a separate number from the dealership. I can’t tell you why the caller ID came up the way it did. If you want to confirm I’m…