When ChatGPT was made available to the public on November 30, 2002, the AI chatbot took the world by storm.
The software was developed by OpenAI, an AI and research company. ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool able to answer queries and provide information based on datasets gleaned from datasets, including books and online web pages, and has since become a valued tool for on-the-fly information gathering, analysis, and writing tasks for millions of users worldwide.
While some experts believe the technology could prove to reach an internet level of disruption, others note that ChatGPT demonstrates ‘confident inaccuracy.’ Students in droves have been caught plagiarizing coursework by way of the tool, and unless datasets are verified, tools such as ChatGPT could become unwitting tools to spread misinformation and propaganda.
Indeed, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating Open AI over its handling of personal information and the data used to create its language model.
Beyond data protection concerns, however, whenever a new technological innovation is made, so are pathways for abuse. It was only a matter of time before the AI chatbot was emulated for malicious purposes — and one such tool is now on the market, known as WormGPT.
What is WormGPT?
On July 13, researchers from cybersecurity firm SlashNext published a blog post revealing the discovery of WormGPT, a tool being promoted for sale on a hacker forum.
According to the forum user, the WormGPT project aims to be a blackhat “alternative” to ChatGPT, “one that lets you do all sorts of illegal stuff and easily sell it online in the future.”
SlashNext gained access to the tool, described as an AI module based on the GPTJ language model. WormGPT has allegedly been trained with data sources including malware-related information — but the specific datasets remain known only to WormGPT’s author.
It may be possible for WormGPT to generate malicious code, for example, or convincing phishing emails.
What is WormGPT being used for?
WormGTP is described as “similar to ChatGPT but has no ethical boundaries or limitations.”
ChatGPT has a set of rules in place to try and stop users from abusing the chatbot unethically. This includes refusing to complete tasks related to criminality and malware. However, users are constantly finding ways to circumvent these limitations.
The researchers were able to use WormGPT to “generate an email intended to pressure an unsuspecting account manager into paying a fraudulent invoice.” The team was surprised at how well the language model managed the task, branding the result “remarkably persuasive [and] also strategically cunning.”
July 19, 2023
Written by Charlie Osbourne