ChatGPT’s ‘Serious’ Criminal Exploit Is Coming, Europol Warns

From phishing to disinformation to malware, chatbots’ rapidly evolving capabilities will not only be used to better mankind, but also to deceive it, Europol says in a new report. increase.

Created by US startup OpenAI, ChatGPT debuted in November and was quickly taken by users surprised by its ability to clearly answer difficult questions, write sonnets and code, and even pass exams.

The Hague-based Europol said: “The possible exploitation of this kind of AI system by criminals presents a grim outlook.”

Europol’s new ‘Innovation Lab’ looked at the entire use of chatbots, but the series of workshops focused on ChatGPT as it is the most well-known and most widely used.

Criminals can use ChatGPT to “greatly speed up the investigation process” in areas they know nothing about, the agency found.

This could involve committing fraud or drafting texts to provide information on “how to break into a home, commit terrorism, cybercrime and child sexual abuse”. said it.

The chatbot’s ability to disguise its speaking style is particularly effective against phishing, where users click on fake email links to steal data, the company said.

ChatGPT’s ability to quickly create lifelike text “is ideal for propaganda and disinformation purposes, as it enables users to generate and disseminate messages that reflect a specific story with relatively little effort.”

ChatGPT can also be used to create computer code, especially for non-technical criminals. Europol said.

“This type of automatic code generation is particularly useful for criminals with little or no coding or development knowledge,” he said.

According to Europol, early research by Check Point Research (CPR), a U.S.-Israeli cyber threat intelligence firm, showed how chatbots could be used to craft phishing emails and infiltrate online systems.

ChatGPT has safeguards like content moderation and won’t answer questions classified as harmful or biased, but these can be circumvented with clever prompts, Europol said.

The AI ​​is still in its early stages, and its capabilities are “expected to improve further over time,” he added.

“It is of utmost importance to raise awareness about this issue so that potential loopholes are discovered and closed as soon as possible,” Europol said.

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