Is ChatGPT Really One Of The Most Significant Developments In Digital Technology?

Bill Gates has witnessed a lifetime of invention as a co-founder of Microsoft, one of the most successful technological firms of all time. Yet, the next great thing might still wow him. In a recent interview with Forbes, Gates expressed his enthusiasm for OpenAI’s generative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. “It’s pretty stunning that what I’m seeing in AI just in the last 12 months is every bit as important as the PC, the PC with GUI [graphical user interface], or the internet. As the four most important milestones in digital technology, this ranks up there,” said Gates.

He’s discussing AI in general, but the much hotter issue is OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool. These days, you can’t open a tech magazine without seeing at least one piece on how fantastic ChatGPT is—or soon will be.

Just what is this ChatGPT thing that has everyone buzzing? ZDNET defines it as “a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and much more with a chatbot. The language model can answer questions, and assist you with tasks such as composing emails, essays, and code.”

The “GPT” in the name means for generative pre-trained transformer, which is a fancy way of expressing that the software has been taught to learn various types of information using both supervised and reinforcement learning approaches. In supervised machine learning, the computer is given a variety of datasets and taught on how to categorise the data.

Reinforcement learning models are used in which the computer learns through trial and error. ChatGPT was trained on genuinely large volumes of data, including computer code and internet content, as well as webpages, forum debates, and more.

Taking ChatGPT For A Test Drive

In November, OpenAI launched a research preview version of the software to allow users to engage with it and understand how it may be utilised. It’s vital to note that this product is still in its early stages. In reality, its learning does not encompass information beyond 2021, implying that much more training is required. Moreover, ChatGPT’s replies may be utterly incorrect, yet the chatbot looks to be absolutely confident in them. Misinformation may be learned and shared by chatbots as well.

Still, the product is evolved enough to get a good sense of what it can achieve. Proponents like as Bill Gates and others see a future in which AI-based chatbots may provide medical advice to individuals who do not have access to a doctor, instruct students who need extra help, and facilitate research into a wide range of topics. The options are literally limitless.

ChatGPT Is A Blessing To Threat Actors

The visionary leaders of OpenAI undoubtedly want their technology to be utilised to serve society rather than for any nefarious objectives. (It states that right in the terms and conditions.) Of course, threat actors dismiss such an idea.

Some people are already exploiting ChatGPT to create harmful code or material for use in cyberattacks. ChatGPT has the ability to write as well as or better than a human, making it suitable for creating convincing and personalised text messages that may be used in phishing attacks. No more terrible language and misspellings to mislead the reader into providing login credentials or account information. In the future, phishing tactics should be far more successful.

Security experts have also discovered evidence that threat actors use ChatGPT to develop malware that encrypts and decrypts data as part of ransomware operations.

The programme also can write code such as spyware, keystroke loggers, and malware-spreading viruses. What’s more, ChatGPT is so efficient at producing software code that it lowers the threshold for anyone who wants to enter into “the business” of cybercrime.

A Tool To Enhance Cybersecurity

Yet, while ChatGPT may be used for malevolent reasons, it can also be utilised to improve cybersecurity.

ChatGPT can easily interchange data with other programmes thanks to OpenAI’s application programming interface (API). As a result, the cybersecurity industry is watching ChatGPT to see how it may be used to detect and mitigate risks to business networks.

Security companies are currently investigating how they may feed threat artefacts or indications to ChatGPT, which will then collect relevant information, evaluate data and system configurations, and provide step-by-step directions for threat mitigation. These instructions can then be routed to Slack or a ticketing system to guarantee that the issue is resolved.

While this is an ideal use case for an AI-based chatbot, ChatGPT’s training from 2021 and before limits its applicability for modern-day threat remediation. To achieve this and other use cases, the tool’s data training will need to be brought in and kept up to date.

More Beneficial Uses In Cybersecurity

If ChatGPT can produce convincing phishing communications, the messages can be used to teach security personnel. Workers can be challenged and tested to evaluate how adept they are at identifying and reacting to a phishing threat, providing the business with insight into how well prepared it is for an attack. Moreover, white hat hackers and penetration testers may design realistic assaults to evaluate a company’s security posture.

This technology may also be used to collect and evaluate threat intelligence from other sources, including the infamous dark web. Such intelligence may be fed into standard cybersecurity systems to improve their detection of threats.

ChatGPT is currently in its early stages. Yet, Bill Gates is correct when he states that AI developments constitute a key milestone in computer history. It’s impossible to predict what people may come up with as use cases, both good and harmful. It’s generating quite a commotion in the cybersecurity business, and very rightly so.

Source: Saryu Nayyar, CEO of Gurucul

Source: Forbes Technology Council