Security News > 2023 > August > Add 'writing malware' to the list of things generative AI is not very good at doing

Analysis Despite the hype around criminals using ChatGPT and various other large language models to ease the chore of writing malware, it seems this generative AI technology isn't terribly good at helping with that kind of work.

In two reports published this week, Trend Micro and Google's Mandiant weigh in on the buzzy AI tech, and both reach the same conclusion: internet fiends are interested in using generative AI for nefarious purposes, though in reality, usage remains limited.

We have observed a spam-handling piece of software called GoMailPro, which supports AOL Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, ProtonMail, T-Online, and Zoho Mail accounts, that is mainly used by criminals to send out spammed emails to victims," Sancho and Ciancaglini said.

In addition to helping craft phishing emails or other social engineering scams - especially in languages the criminals don't speak - AI is also good at producing content for disinformation campaigns, including deep-fake audio and images.

The fact remains that you have to have some level of technical proficiency to use AI to write malware, and it will probably still require a human coder to check and make corrections.

Ergo, anyone using AI to write realistic, usable malware can probably write that code themselves anyway.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/08/18/ai_malware_truth/