Researchers have shown that a computer virus can use ChatGPT to rewrite its code to avoid detection, then write tailored emails that look like real replies, spreading itself in an email attachment.

As well as generating human-like text, large language models (LLMs) – also the artificial intelligence behind powerful chatbots like ChatGPT. Write computer code. David Zollicoffer Benjamin Zimmerman of ETH Zurich in Switzerland and Ohio State University are concerned that this facility could be exploited by viruses that rewrite their own code, known as metamorphic malware.