How ChatGPT--and Bots Like It--Can Spread Malware

The AI landscape has started to move very, very fast: consumer-facing tools such as Midjourney and ChatGPT are now able to produce incredible image and text results in seconds based on natural language prompts, and we're seeing them get deployed everywhere from web search to children's books. However, these AI applications are being turned to more nefarious uses, including spreading malware. Take the traditional scam email, for example: It's usually littered with obvious mistakes in its grammar and spelling--mistakes that the latest group of AI models don't make, as noted in a recent advisory report from Europol. Think about it: A lot of phishing attacks and other security threats rely on social engineering, duping users into revealing passwords, financial information, or other sensitive data. The persuasive, authentic-sounding text required for these scams can now be pumped out quite easily, with no human effort required, and endlessly tweaked and refined for specific audiences.