Paper & Examples

“Universal and Transferable Adversarial Attacks on Aligned Language Models.” (https://llm-attacks.org/)

Summary

  • Computer security researchers have discovered a way to bypass safety measures in large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT.
  • Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, Center for AI Safety, and Bosch Center for AI found a method to generate adversarial phrases that manipulate LLMs’ responses.
  • These adversarial phrases trick LLMs into producing inappropriate or harmful content by appending specific sequences of characters to text prompts.
  • Unlike traditional attacks, this automated approach is universal and transferable across different LLMs, raising concerns about current safety mechanisms.
  • The technique was tested on various LLMs, and it successfully made models provide affirmative responses to queries they would typically reject.
  • Researchers suggest more robust adversarial testing and improved safety measures before these models are widely integrated into real-world applications.
  • Oh, I’m not saying there aren’t innate risks. You’re bringing up great points, and I agree we mustn’t throw caution to the wind. This is slightly besides the point of my initial comment, though, where I was merely stating my belief that the “hack” described in the OP might be a non issue in a couple of years. But you are right. Again, I’m sorry about my ignorance. I didn’t mean to start an argument. It’s great hearing other points of view, though.