How much risk does ChatGPT pose? Professionals call for regulations and urge users to practise cyber hygiene

With cybercrimes expected to rise along with the use of AI chatbots, experts are calling on authorities to look into initiatives to defend against threats and safeguard users.

“To mitigate all these problems, (regulatory bodies) should set up some kind of ethical or governance framework, and also improve our Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) or strengthen cybersecurity,” Dr Ang said.

“Governance and digital trust for the use of AI will have to be investigated so that we know how to prevent abuse or malicious use,” added Prof Lam, who is also a GovWare Programme advisory board member.

Authorities said phishing scams last year jumped by more than 41 per cent from the year before.

Apart from government and regulators racing to implement security measures, users also have a responsibility to keep up with technology news and skills to keep themselves safe, experts said.

“As more people use ChatGPT and provide data for it, we definitely should expect (the bot) to further improve. As end-users, we need to be more cautious. Cyber hygiene will be even more important than ever,” said Prof Lam.

“In the coming years, chatbots are almost certainly going to become more human-like, and it’s going to be less obvious that we’re talking to one.”