The extensive growth in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) landscape has created a paradigm shift in the technological industry, offering industry-standard applications and technology-led solutions to everyone regardless of location. Generative AI is an integral part of AI that focuses on creating nascent innovations, such as AI-driven conversational assistants, content-generating tools, and so on.
AI-powered chatbots have assisted businesses in their operations, streamlining their Customer Relationship Management (CRM), improving productivity, and much more. Multiple AI conversational assistants are available, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini Pro, Anthropic’s Claude 2, and so forth. The variety of tools in the market offers easy access to customers worldwide.
However, AI worms are a novel concept that affects the positive aspects of generative AI technology. Like hacking and scams in the AI domain, AI worms like Morris II hijack AI-powered tools to steal confidential data in its Large Language Model (LLM). Without stored data, AI assistants won’t function properly, impacting the overall functionality of the tool.
AI-Driven Chatbots
Generative AI is at the forefront of technological innovation that converges multiple features of AI into an enterprise, boosting business operations and customer experience and automating mundane corporate activities. Many AI-driven conversational assistants add to the perks of generative AI. That includes ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude 2, Grok, and so on.
These technologies’ foundations are Natural Language Processing (NLP) for helping the AI machine understand users’ commands, LLM for storing, processing, and managing data, computer vision technology for facial recognition and generating images or videos, and so on.
With a multitude of tech giants contributing their excellence in the generative AI ecosystem, experts predict that its global market size will reach a staggering two trillion U.S. dollars by 2030, making it one of the most widely adopted technological innovations. Given this eye-catching figure, it is sad to experience Morris II affecting its global market by creating customer discomfort.
AI Worm – An Overview
With digital transformation on the rise, organisations and consumers may not feel safe due to the parallel cyber threats. Cyber threats consist of multiple methods and activities that target users’ data and information stored online via phishing, malware, trojans, and so on. These targets aim for ransom to demand money from the victim in exchange for the compromised data.
In the AI landscape, AI worms act as malware that targets AI systems, such as chatbots and other AI tools. By targeting the AI systems, it becomes easily replicable through self-replication and spreading, making it challenging for AI tools to detect and fight against them. Therefore, it poses a massive threat to enterprises by taking control of users’ confidential data.
Morris II is the perfect example of an AI worm that spreads like fire in an AI chatbot once it takes over the system. It hijacks ChatGPT and Gemini of top AI development companies, namely OpenAI and Google. After it gets inside the AI chatbot, it creates automatic prompts to dictate the AI tool to provide it with private data.
Related: Meet Le Chat, the French Rival to ChatGPT
Morris II – A Powerful AI Worm That Can Hijack AI Chatbots
In November 1988, an intelligent student of Cornell University, Robert Tappan Morris, devised an effective and hazardous computer worm that affected computer devices connected to the internet. Hijacking more than six thousand machines became an immense success of the time, corrupting and impacting their data and resources.
To honour the developer of the 1988 Morris worm, researchers have come up with an advanced and more dangerous malware, Morris II. Morris II is an AI worm that targets AI-powered email assistants. Once it gets into your system, it takes seconds to replicate itself and hijack the entire AI chatbot.
Targeting tech giants and their AI applications, it focuses on performing data stealth in ChatGPT and Gemini Pro. Click here to learn more. The problem with this AI worm is that it goes through the AI system without detection via two methods. That includes text and image prompting. It adds extra words to the textual prompt or a defective image into the AI system to take out the worthy data.
Safeguarding Your Data with ChatGPT and Gemini Pro
@cyberjobs_explained AI can be good, too! #ai #chatgpt ♬ original sound – Lil🖤
OpenAI and Google are two vital companies in the realm of generative AI. They tend to offer industry-standard solutions to tech enthusiasts and keep on improving their tools for futuristic usability. However, you must take several steps to keep organisations secure and unharmed from the growing cyber threats.
Cybersecurity is integral when it comes to safeguarding businesses and organisations in the changing landscape of technological excellence. With every top-notch application, you will experience a scenario where evil-minded developers and malicious actors benefit from vulnerabilities in a system. AI worms like Morris II are perfect examples that exploit weaker AI systems.
If you want to avoid becoming prey to AI worms or other cyber threats, you must consider safety measures, such as taking care while opening unknown emails and websites. Moreover, you can benefit from AI-backed cybersecurity to keep your organisation out of harm’s way.
AI Companies Must Show Deterrence to Morris II
Morris II is primarily attracted towards OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini AI chatbots. Researchers have warned AI development companies to consider introducing safety measures against cyber threats. Google has not officially answered the news in this regard, but OpenAI has started investigating the issue.
Soon, it will equip its AI tools like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and other applications with matchless security to keep users secure and safe. They must emphasise cybersecurity tactics in online technologies to secure customers’ confidential data and keep their users from losing confidence in revolutionary innovations.
The future offers remedies against these hacks and scams in the digitally-advanced innovations. It will safeguard users while promoting a harmonised ecosystem for further developments and enhancements in the AI landscape.