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By Baek Byung-yeul
The government aims to come up with measures to deal with new cybersecurity threats posed by the increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) services in various fields, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT, Tuesday.
The ministry held a discussion session in Seoul with representatives from academia, government agencies and IT security companies to explore ways to respond to security threats from generative AI, exchange the latest information on domestic and global security threats and examine the industrial ramifications of the growing use of services such as ChatGPT, provided by U.S. AI company OpenAI, the ministry said.
ChatGPT is an interactive AI service based on a language-processing AI model. It is regarded as a new technology whereby the AI learns how to generate answers by itself, processes large amounts of data simultaneously and tracks the relationship between words and data in a sentence to provide creative answers to users.
Since the service's 3.5 version was unveiled last November, ChatGPT has seen unprecedentedly rapid growth, exceeding 100 million monthly users in about the space of two months, and is being utilized in various sectors.
However, at the same time, the possibility of using ChatGPT for cyberattacks such as malware, ransomware and phishing emails has recently emerged and concerns have been raised about security issues such as the disclosure of personal information and the trade secrets of companies while using these generative AI services.
“In response to the cybersecurity concerns, the ministry held the forum to listen to the vivid opinions of experts about the safe utilization of generative AI services and security threats and to discuss future policy responses,” the ICT ministry said. “Other countries, including the U.S. and European nations, are also concerned about the risks of AI technologies such as chatbots. They are also moving to discuss regulatory measures to build a safe and trustworthy environment.”
During the forum, Lee Sang-keun, a professor at Korea University's School of Cybersecurity delivered a presentation about the evolution of ChatGPT technology and cybersecurity and shared his thoughts on why in-depth research is necessary to prepare for the development of generative AI technologies.
Jung Il-ok, a researcher at cybersecurity company, Igloo Security, shared the latest industry trends related to AI at home and abroad and announced the growth potential of cybersecurity threat detection technology, which incorporates AI. He also demonstrated a security solution that determines cyber threat information by linking self-developed AI models and ChatGPT.
Kim Jung-hee, director of the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), also presented the current status and case analyses of security threats caused by using generative AI and countermeasures to prevent security threats.
“It is necessary to actively respond to security threat concerns, as generative AI technologies such as chatbots will be further developed and widely used in our daily lives,” Vice ICT Minister Park Yun-kyu said.
“The government will do its best to create a safe cyber environment so that people can use generative AI services without fear and to prepare a response capability to deal with increasingly intelligent and sophisticated cyber threats,” the vice minister added.