Crypto Botnet on X is Powered by ChatGPT

upstart writes:

Crypto botnet on X is powered by ChatGPT:

ChatGPT may well revolutionize web search, streamline office chores, and remake education, but the smooth-talking chatbot has also found work as a social media crypto huckster.

Researchers at Indiana University Bloomington discovered a botnet powered by ChatGPT operating on X-the social network formerly known as Twitter-in May of this year.

The botnet, which the researchers dub Fox8 because of its connection to cryptocurrency websites bearing some variation of the same name, consisted of 1,140 accounts. Many of them seemed to use ChatGPT to craft social media posts and to reply to each other's posts. The auto-generated content was apparently designed to lure unsuspecting humans into clicking links through to the crypto-hyping sites.

[...] The Fox8 botnet might have been sprawling, but its use of ChatGPT certainly wasn't sophisticated. The researchers discovered the botnet by searching the platform for the tell-tale phrase "As an AI language model ...", a response that ChatGPT sometimes uses for prompts on sensitive subjects. They then manually analyzed accounts to identify ones that appeared to be operated by bots.

[...] Despite the tic, the botnet posted many convincing messages promoting cryptocurrency sites. The apparent ease with which OpenAI's artificial intelligence was apparently harnessed for the scam means advanced chatbots may be running other botnets that have yet to be detected. "Any pretty-good bad guys would not make that mistake," Menczer says.

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