The artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, becoming the fastest-growing consumer application in history. In the process, it has sparked new worries about the effects of AI-driven automation. From a business standpoint, A.I. can greatly improve processes in such areas as data entry, invoice processing, email marketing, employee onboarding, customer service, and more. In addition, A.I. is also heavily used by advanced cybersecurity programs to detect and eliminate threats. As with all technological advances, there are trade-offs as bad guys are also using artificial intelligence for their own benefit.

Following are just a few scary ways in which A.I. can or will be used by bad actors:

• Automated detection and avoidance of protective measures through machine learning or reverse engineering.

• Artificial intelligence which scans for vulnerabilities, automatically exploits them, and the deploys malware.

• A.I. created phishing emails or texts via information gleaned from the automated “trawling” of social media posts and profiles.

• Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks executed solely by A.I. controlled machines which continually optimize the attack.

• The automated, deep fake replication of a person’s voice or image which is used maliciously (such as a CEO authorizing a money transfer).