With AI, Hackers Can Simply Talk Computers Into Misbehaving

Using a technique called ‘prompt injection,’ hackers can break AI systems using plain English

ChatGPT’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to simple commands has attracted more than 100 million users, and a few hackers along the way.

Johann Rehberger, a security researcher, is one of them. Using plain English, he recently coaxed OpenAI’s chatbot to do something bad: Read his email, summarize it and post that information to the internet. In the hands of a criminal, this technique could have been used to steal sensitive data from someone’s email inbox, Rehberger said.

ChatGPT “lowers the barrier to entry for all sorts of attacks,” Rehberger said. “Because you don’t really need to be able to write code. You don’t have to have that deep knowledge of computer science or hacking.”

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