Surprise! Bad Actors Use AI
June 12, 2026
Bad actors are usually the first to learn how to manipulate AI for nefarious means. The trouble is learning how to catch them at their own game before they commit horrible crimes. OpenAI wrote a report about, “Disrupting Malicious Uses Of AI” and here’s what they summarize about the latest findings:
“In the two years since we began publishing these threat reports, we have gained important insights into the ways threat actors attempt to abuse AI models. In particular, the case studies in this report, as in our earlier reports, illustrate how threat actors typically use AI in combination with other, more traditional tools such as websites and social media accounts. Threat activity is seldom limited to one platform; as our report on a Chinese influence operator shows, it is not always limited to one AI model. Rather, threat actors may use different AI models at various points in their operational workflow. We share these insights in our threat reports so that our industry, and wider society, can be better placed to identify and avoid such threats.”
Here’s the scenario we have to remember: all of these situations are a game of cat and mouse. The bad actors are the mice raining havoc down less-tech savvy individuals, while the white hat actors are the cats trying to catch them with similar and sometimes better resources, i.e. government funding. The problems are that mice multiply faster than cats and also learn how to adapt quicker. They don’t rely on the same tricks and tools, plus they operate in countries with lax laws or they’re smart enough to cover their tracks.
A reminder: Most bad actors act without too much bureaucratic friction. Defense can be tiresome tactic. Offense is, for some bad actors, more fun and with AI-enabled smarts, lucrative. Employment phishing and malware delivery uses different systems to allow agents to launch attacks at anyone whose names can be scraped or snagged from a Dark Web store front.
Whitney Grace, June 12, 2026
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