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Cyber offence

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Harm to individuals through fake content

Cyber offence

Home/Risks/Bengio et al. (2024)/Cyber offence

Harm to individuals through fake content

Cyber offence

International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI

Bengio et al. (2024)

Source

Sub-category

Risk Domain

4Malicious Actors & Misuse

4.2Cyberattacks, weapon development or use, and mass harm

Using AI systems to develop cyber weapons (e.g., by coding cheaper, more effective malware), develop new or enhance existing weapons (e.g., Lethal Autonomous Weapons or chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives), or use weapons to cause mass harm.

"General- purpose AI systems could uplift the cyber expertise of individuals, making it easier for malicious users to conduct effective cyber- attacks, as well as providing a tool that can be used in cyber defence. General- purpose AI systems can be used to automate and scale some types of cyber operations, such as social engineering attacks."(p. 44)

Entity— Who or what caused the harm

Human

Due to a decision or action made by humans

AI system

Due to a decision or action made by an AI system

Other

Due to some other reason or is ambiguous

Intent— Whether the harm was intentional or accidental

Intentional

Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal

Unintentional

Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal

Other

Without clearly specifying the intentionality

Timing— Whether the risk is pre- or post-deployment

Pre-deployment

Occurring before the AI is deployed

Post-deployment

Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed

Other

Without a clearly specified time of occurrence

Supporting Evidence (2)

"General- purpose AI systems can exacerbate existing cybersecurity risks in several ways. Firstly, they may lower the barrier to entry of more sophisticated cyber attacks, so the number of people capable of such attacks might increase. Secondly, general- purpose AI systems could be used to scale offensive cyber operations, through increasing levels of automation and efficiency."(p. 44)

"General- purpose AI systems reduce the cost, technical know- how, and expertise needed to conduct cyber- attacks. Offensive cyber operations include designing and spreading malicious software as well as discovering and exploiting vulnerabilities in critical systems. They can lead to significant security breaches, for example in critical national infrastructure (CNI), and pose a threat to public safety and security. Given the labour- intensive nature of these operations, advanced general- purpose AI that automates certain aspects of the process, reducing the number of experts needed and lowering the required level of expertise, could be useful for attackers."(p. 44)

Part of Malicious Use Risks