Researchers have developed a computer “worm” that can spread from one computer to another using generative AI, a warning sign that the tech could be used to develop dangerous malware in the near future — if it hasn’t already. As Wired reports, the worm can attack AI-powered email assistants to obtain sensitive data from emails and blast out spam messages that infect other systems. “It basically means that now you have the ability to conduct or to perform a new kind of cyberattack that hasn’t been seen before,” Cornell Tech researcher Ben Nassi, coauthor of a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed paper about the work, told Wired. While researchers have yet to encounter AI-powered worms in the wild, per the report, they warn it’s only a matter of time. In their experiment, which took place within a controlled environment, the researchers targeted email assistants powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4, Google’s Gemini Pro, and an open-source large language model called LLaVA. They used an “adversarial self-replicating prompt,” which forces an AI model to spit out yet another prompt in its response. This triggers a cascading stream of outputs that can infect these assistants and thereby draw out sensitive information. “It can be names, it can be telephone numbers, credit card numbers, SSN, anything that is considered confidential,” Nassi told Wired. In other words, since these AI assistants have access to a hoard of personal data, they can easily be coaxed into giving up user secrets, regardless of guardrails. Using a newly set up email system, which…Researchers Create AI-Powered Malware That Spreads on Its Own