The dizzying capacity for OpenAI to vacuum up vast amounts of data and spit out custom-tailored content has ushered in all sorts of worrying predictions about the technology’s ability to overwhelm everything — including cybersecurity defenses.
Indeed, ChatGPT’s latest iteration, GPT-4, is smart enough to pass the bar exam, generate thousands of words of text, and write malicious code. And thanks to its stripped-down interface anyone can use, concerns that the OpenAI tools could turn any would-be petty thief into a technically savvy malicious coder in moments were, and still are, well-founded. ChatGPT-enabled cyberattacks started popping up just after its user-friendly interface premiered in November 2022.
OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman told a crowd gathered at SXSW this month that he is concerned about the technology’s potential to do two specific things really well: spread disinformation and launch cyberattacks.
“Now that they’re getting better at writing computer code, [OpenAI] could be used for offensive cyberattacks,” Brockman said.
No word on what OpenAI intends to do to mitigate the chatbot’s cybersecurity threat, however. For the time being, it appears to be up to the…
