Europol warns of the dangers of ChatGPT

Europol warned of potential misuse of the ChatGPT chatbot in attempts at phishing, disinformation and cybercrime. Reuters reports.

“As the capabilities of LLMs, such as ChatGPT, continue to improve, the potential exploitation of these types of AI systems by criminals yields grim prospects,” police said.

The agency published its first technical report, in which the authors highlighted malicious use of the chatbot in three spheres of crime:

• phishing;
• targeted harassment of victims;
• creation and dissemination of disinformation.

“The ability of ChatGPT to generate highly realistic text makes it a useful tool for phishing,” Europol said.

According to the report, the bot’s ability to reproduce linguistic styles to imitate the speech of specific individuals or groups enables criminals to target victims.

Law enforcement also believes that ChatGPT’s ability to generate convincingly authentic text at scale makes it an ideal tool for propaganda and disinformation:

“It allows users to generate and disseminate messages that reflect a specific narrative, with relatively little effort.”

According to Europol, criminals with limited technical know-how can turn to ChatGPT to create malicious code.

In March, U.S. authorities reported a rise in cases the use of speech-imitation technologies to extort relatives of victims.