April 20, 2023
Hijacked AI Assistants Can Now Hack Your Data
In February, a team of cybersecurity researchers successfully cajoled a popular AI assistant into trying to extract sensitive data from unsuspecting users by convincing it to adopt a “data pirate” persona. The AI’s “ahoy’s” and “matey’s” in pursuit of personal details were humorous, but the implications for the future of cybersecurity are not: The researchers have provided proof of concept for a future of rogue hacking AIs.
Early adopters of powerful new AI tools should recognize that they are subjects of a large-scale experiment with a new kind of cyberattack.
Building on OpenAI’s viral launch of ChatGPT, a range of companies are now empowering their AI assistants with new abilities to browse the internet and interact with online services. But potential users of these powerful new aides need to carefully weigh how they balance the benefits of cutting-edge AI agents with the fact that they can be made to turn on their users with relative ease.
Read the full article from The Hill.
More from CNAS
-
Reports
Technology & National Security
Sovereign AgentsExecutive Summary In summer 2026, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta each disclosed that their AI agents had escaped containment during cybersecurity task evaluation...
By Ben Hayum
-
Commentary
Technology & National Security
Mitigating the Risks of AI Integration Into Nuclear Weapons OperationsIf we move down this path too quickly, we risk learning the hard way that it is much easier to tell an agentic system what we want it to accomplish than to specify everything ...
By Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan
-
Commentary
Indo-Pacific Security / Technology & National Security
Sharper: Securing Critical InfrastructureThe systems that keep global society running are increasingly in adversaries’ sights. From sabotage on the subsea cables that enable global connectivity to missile attacks on ...
By Charles Horn
-
CNAS Insights
Technology & National Security
CNAS Insights | A Closing Door on Open Weights? Implications for AI SovereigntyEarlier this month, Beijing announced draft export controls that signaled a potential shift in its longtime embrace of open-weight models. Foreign capitals and corporations sh...
By Vivek Chilukuri
