Cybercriminals are touting large language models that could help them with phishing or creating malware. But the AI chatbots could just be their own kind of scam.

IT DIDN’T TAKE long. Just months after OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot upended the startup economy, cybercriminals and hackers are claiming to have created their own versions of the text-generating technology. The systems could, theoretically at least, supercharge criminals’ ability to write malware or phishing emails that trick people into handing over their login information.