😺 AI Phishing Attacks

PLUS: We've been deep in the Reddit rabbitholes

Noah Edelman & Pete Huang
November 03, 2023

Welcome, humans.

Collins Dictionary named ‘AI’ as its word of the year. Here are some of our favorite runner-ups:

nepo-baby: think Jaden Smith.
ultra-processed: what you just ate for breakfast.
greedflation: when lattes became $8 to “combat inflation”.

Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

There has been a 1,265% uptick in phishing emails since last year.
ChatGPT connected to Google Drive and Microsoft 365 is coming soon.
Midjourney released a “Style Tuner” for customizing images.
Brave introduced an AI assistant within its browser.

Get Ready For An Avalanche Of AI Email Phishing.

Remember those Nigerian Prince email scams? The ones you've definitely never falled for, right? right??

AI could make them wayyyy harder to catch.

See, “Nigerian Princes” now wield tools like ChatGPT and Bard which can draft phishing messages in perfect English—or even local dialects—with no misplaced commas or overused “Hello, Sirs”.

Still think you’re invincible?

Well, there’s already been a 1,265% increase in phishing emails since ChatGPT came out last November.

Microsoft has seen more cyber criminals and hackers using AI to polish language in their phishing attacks.
IBM even created a fake but highly convincing phishing message in 5 minutes—a task that usually takes them 16 hours!

Our advice: keep calm and (don’t) carry on until you’ve bolstered your workplace security systems. Companies, this one’s on you—here’s a good option.

And employees, discard the myth that all phishing emails sound like a 5th-grader wrote them. Those days are over.

Make sure to always double-check unfamiliar sender addresses and unexpected links, because the "verify your bank account" scam emails are about to get a whole lot more convincing...

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Here’s What’s Coming Next For ChatGPT.

OpenAI’s much-anticipated DevDay is this Monday, and expectations are high for significant reveals (catch the action live here).

We’ve been deep in the Reddit rabbitholes digging up insights you just won’t find anywhere else.

ChatGPT is set to integrate with your Google Drive and Microsoft 365 apps (creds to this leak). TBD if this is announced at DevDay.

In layman’s terms: ChatGPT will be able to pull, summarize, and work any Google Drive/Microsoft 365 file. We expect this to be able to execute tasks like {send email to _____ about _____} without having to leave ChatGPT.

We also anticipate major upgrades for developers who build with OpenAI’s APIs:

cheaper APIs
faster APIs.
expanded context windows (a user noted the GPT-4 API now handles 32K tokens)
release of DALL-E 3 and/or Vision API.

One feature idea we hear on repeat is a search function for past ChatGPT chats—finding prompts that worked well is tougher than spotting a vegan at a BBQ!

Around the Horn.

LOL

Meta’s free AI Llama isn’t cheap to use, some companies say.
Brave’s web browser introduced an AI assistant powered by Llama 2.
Midjourney launched a “Style Tuner” for paid users that lets you customize images.
AI engineering jobs are paying 20% higher salaries than non-AI engineering jobs.

Intelligent Insights.

Most mainstream AI coverage gets a C-. Here are some grade-A pieces from authors who know what they’re talking about.

What To Do About Misinformation in the Upcoming Election Cycle? (link).
Generative AI’s Impact on Blockchain, BCIs, AVs, and the Metaverse (link).
Attenuating Innovation (AI) by Statechery (link).
Microsoft pushes the boundaries of small AI models with big breakthrough (link).