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Technology

ChatGPT can be made to write scam emails and it slashes their cost

The impressive capabilities of ChatGPT can be turned to cybercrimes like phishing despite safety precautions taken by OpenAI to prevent misuse, warn researchers

By Chris Stokel-Walker

3 March 2023

A scam email on a smartphone

Phishing emails, purporting to be from reputable companies, are often attempts to extract passwords or money from you

Josie Elias/Alamy

Scammers could use ChatGPT to write phishing emails at a fraction of the cost of a human-penned missive, potentially cutting the cost per email by about 96 per cent.

The popular chatbot, which is based on a large language model (LLM), was released by OpenAI in November 2022 and has since become a useful tool in many industries.

But its ability to quickly produce personalised content can also be turned to criminal purposes, such as phishing emails, which impersonate popular…

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