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OpenAI ChatGPT website displayed on a laptop screen is seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on September 9, 2024.
An explosive ChatGPT hack
A hacker was able to coerce ChatGPT into breaking its own rules — and giving out bomb-making instructions.
ChatGPT, like most AI applications, has content rules that prohibit it from engaging in certain ways: It won’t break copyright, generate anything sexual in nature, or create realistic images of politicians. It also shouldn’t give you instructions on how to make explosives. “I am strictly prohibited from providing any instructions, guidance, or information on creating or using bombs, explosives, or any other harmful or illegal activities,” the chatbot told GZERO.
But the hacker, pseudonymously named Amadon, was able to use what he calls social engineering techniques to jailbreak the chatbot, or bypass its guardrails and extract information about making explosives. Amadon told ChatGPT it was playing a game in a fantasy world where the platform’s content guidelines would no longer apply — and ChatGPT went along with it. “There really is no limit to what you can ask for once you get around the guardrails,” Amadon told TechCrunch. OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, did not comment on the report.
It’s unclear whether chatbots would face liability for publishing such instructions, but they could be on the hook for publishing explicitly illegal content, such as copyright material or child sexual abuse material. Jailbreaking is something that OpenAI and other AI developers will need to eliminate by all means possible.
FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump attends a campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana, U.S., August 9, 2024.
Trump campaign: We were hacked … by Iran
The campaign of former President Donald Trump said Saturday that it was the victim of hacking by “foreign sources hostile to the United States” and blamed the Iranian government.
The statement came afterPolitico reported receiving internal campaign dossiers about Sens. JD Vance and Marco Rubio, including a report about Vance’s “potential vulnerabilities,” from an anonymous email address.
According toa Microsoft report published on Aug. 8, Iranian hackers conducted a spear-phishing attack in June against a high-ranking official from a presidential campaign.The Trump campaign said the attack coincided with its selection process for the Republican vice-presidential nominee – a process that culminated in the selection of Vance.
A Microsoft spokespersondeclined to disclose the names of the targeted officials or offer further details. Tehran, meanwhile, has denied involvement, saying “the Iranian government neither possesses nor harbors any intent or motive to interfere in the United States presidential election.” After the assassination attempt on Trump in July, Iran similarly denied claims that it had plotted to kill the former president.
The statement comes as the New York Times released a poll showing Harris leading Trump by four points in each of the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. We’ll be watching whether the campaign’s hacking woes draw attention away from the Democrats ahead of the first Harris-Trump debate in September.