Artificial intelligence is all the buzz these days, spurred on by the recent popularity of ChatGPT and Microsoft’s new Bing search engine. The technology is exciting – but also ripe for abuse by bad actors.
Director of the Advancing Human and Machine Reasoning lab John Licato has taken to Gizmodo to voice his concern. AI-powered spam mail might be reaching your inbox soon, he says.
Traditionally, spam mail has used deception to fool users into clicking unsafe links, installing malware, and giving out personal information. With the increasing availability of large language model technology, deceptive tactics are becoming easier to initiate than ever.
Spammers are likely to benefit from more detailed user information without needing as much data to work with, says Licato. Lifestyle, social values and political leanings are all factors that could be better deciphered and used for deceit.
The silver lining in all this? Spam filters will also benefit from AI in the same way the spammers will. The hope is that more sophisticated ways of flagging junk mail will be enabled by harnessing the power of large language models.
It’s unclear just how long it will be before this new spam arms race kicks off. If Licato’s predictions are correct, we might not have to wait very long to find out.
Header image credit: Tumisu via Pixabay
Source: Gizmodo
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