Generative AI chatbots capable of writing emails and computer code, translating, organising a trip or coming up with gift ideas are now readily available – prompting some to ask whether human brainpower could suffer for lack of use. A simple natural-language prompt is usually enough to draw a usable response from a service like ChatGPT or Claude, with the effects making themselves felt in schools and universities, workplaces from offices to courtrooms and our personal lives. Recent scientific...
Huddled in a room around a big screen, dozens of Boko Haram members listened intently as external consultants, whom they called “the white guys”, coached them on how to use leading artificial intelligence chatbots with laptops pre-installed with VPNs and encryption software. The workshop was one of several training sessions delivered by specialised AI “trainers”, likely members of the vast Islamic State network, to Boko Haram members in northeastern Nigeria sometime during 2023 or 2024,...