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After ChatGPT released late last year, people began sign-posting the beginning of the end. However, while many laughed off these concerns partly due to the restrictions that OpenAI had imposed on the chatbot, they have recently become a very real issue.
OpenAI began opening up access for web-browsing on ChatGPT recently, while also giving more developers tools to work on plugins. One particular developer immediately began working on a way for ChatGPT to get full access to your PC using JavaScript – and the results are pretty worrying.
Reddit user marcocastignoli posted the following thread on /r/ChatGPT. It documented not just how the plugin could be used to access all of the documents and files on a system, but how it could give the artificial intelligence total control of your PC too.
The plugin can do a few things such as access all local files, control keyboard and mouse input, open applications, and much more.
After publishing the experiment online, Marco then tweeted out that it’s just an experiment showing off the possibilities of AI, and that knowing that safety is the absolute priority, that the plugin will not be published to GitHub.
The comments reacting to the original Reddit post were obviously filled with fear and concern. The number one saving grace of the current state of artificial intelligence is that is has virtually no agency. The ability to actually act makes it an extremely dangerous technology, and it brings AI much closer to technological singularity (the point in time after which technology far surpasses humankind).
One Redditor commented “Found the beginning of the end ^”, while others responded slightly more level-headed:
“The way OP is using ChatGPT here is like all the behind-the-scenes you take for granted when you hit the power button on your computer or launch an application. Unprompted action by the AI is vastly different than prompted.”
While on the surface this isn’t a particularly harmful exploit, and at its heart it’s scientific and experimental, it rings true the idea that if someone can do something, someone will do something. At some point, it seems as though AI is going to be a lot more dangerous than it is now. Is this really the beginning of the end?
Cover image generated by Dall-E 2.
