Europol, the European Union’s police force, warned on Monday about the potential use of the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot ChatGPT in phishing attempts, disinformation, and cybercrime.
Since its release last year, Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT has sparked a tech frenzy, prompting competitors to launch similar products and businesses to incorporate it or similar technologies into their apps and products.
“As the capabilities of LLMs (large language models) such as ChatGPT are actively being improved, the potential exploitation of these types of AI systems by criminals provide a grim outlook,” Europol said in its first tech report, which focused on chatbots.
It singled out ChatGPT’s harmful use in three types of crime.
“ChatGPT’s ability to draft highly realistic text makes it a useful tool for phishing purposes,” Europol added.
The chatbot’s ability to reproduce language patterns and impersonate the style of speech of specific individuals or groups could be used by criminals to target victims, according to the EU enforcement agency.
According to the report, ChatGPT’s ability to generate authentic-sounding text at high speed and scale makes it an ideal tool for propaganda and disinformation.
Europol says criminals with limited technical knowledge could use ChatGPT to generate malicious code.
ChatGPT became a global sensation after its launch in November last year after it provided to a great extent that the AI bot is capable of performing tasks like debugging, poetry, and essay writing among others.