Microsoft: Poison AI buttons and links may betray your trust

Amid its ongoing promotion of AI’s wonders, Microsoft has warned customers it has found many instances of a technique that manipulates the technology to produce biased advice.

The software giant says its security researchers have detected a surge in attacks designed to poison the “memory” of AI models with manipulative data, a technique it calls “AI Recommendation Poisoning.” It’s similar to SEO Poisoning, a technique used by miscreants to make malicious websites rank higher in search results, but focused on AI models rather than search engines.

The Windows biz says it has spotted companies adding hidden instructions to “Summarize with AI” buttons and links placed on websites.

It’s not complicated to do this because URLs that point to AI chatbots can include a query parameter with a manipulative prompt text.