A wildly popular new AI bot could be used by would-be cyber-criminals to teach them how to craft attacks and even write ransomware, security experts have warned.
ChatGPT was released by artificial intelligence R&D firm OpenAI last month and has already passed one million users.
The prototype chatbot answers questions with apparent authority in natural language, by trawling vast volumes of data across the internet. It can even be creative, for example by writing poetry.
However, its undoubted talents could be used to lower the barrier to entry for budding cyber-criminals, warned Picus Security co-founder, Suleyman Ozarslan.
He was able to use the bot to create a believable World Cup phishing campaign and even write some macOS ransomware. Although the bot flagged that phishing could be used for malicious purposes, it still went ahead and produced the script.
Additionally, although ChatGPT is programmed not to write ransomware directly, Ozarslan was still able to get what he wanted.
