Researchers show how AI-powered worms could wreak havoc on the internet
Key takeaways
- The new threat can tailor its attack and learn new strategies with each machine infected.
- University of Toronto We've seen how AI can be used to find flaws in apps and websites, but researchers have now demonstrated how it could be weaponized to exploit those vulnerabilities.
- A typical worm is usually designed by skilled programmers to exploit specific network flaws and can be stopped by patching those flaws.
The new threat can tailor its attack and learn new strategies with each machine infected.
University of Toronto We've seen how AI can be used to find flaws in apps and websites, but researchers have now demonstrated how it could be weaponized to exploit those vulnerabilities. A team from the University of Toronto used publicly accessible AI models to power a prototype worm capable of exploiting any known computer flaw. Such worms could then spread through networks and cause chaos across the internet.
A typical worm is usually designed by skilled programmers to exploit specific network flaws and can be stopped by patching those flaws. However, the U of T scientists, working in a secure closed environment and taking extensive precautions, used open-weight (open-source) AI models to create a far more sophisticated prototype worm that spread through the team's test network with no human intervention.