Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

ChatGPT creator launches bug bounty program with cash rewards

Trevor Mogg
By

ChatGPT isn’t quite so clever yet that it can find its own flaws, so its creator is turning to humans for help.

OpenAI unveiled a bug bounty program on Tuesday, encouraging people to locate and report vulnerabilities and bugs in its artificial intelligence systems, such as ChatGPT and GPT-4.

Recommended Videos

In a post on its website outlining details of the program, OpenAI said that rewards for reports will range from $200 for low-severity findings to up to $20,000 for what it called “exceptional discoveries.”

Related

The Microsoft-backed company said that its ambition is to create AI systems that “benefit everyone,” adding: “To that end, we invest heavily in research and engineering to ensure our AI systems are safe and secure. However, as with any complex technology, we understand that vulnerabilities and flaws can emerge.”

Addressing security researchers interested in getting involved in the program, OpenAI said it recognized “the critical importance of security and view it as a collaborative effort. By sharing your findings, you will play a crucial role in making our technology safer for everyone.”

With more and more people taking ChatGPT and other OpenAI products for a spin, the company is keen to quickly track down any potential issues to ensure the systems run smoothly and to prevent any weaknesses from being exploited for nefarious purposes. OpenAI therefore hopes that by engaging with the tech community it can resolve any issues before they become more serious problems.

The California-based company has already had one scare where a flaw exposed the titles of some users’ conversations when they should have stayed private.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said after the incident last month that he considered the privacy mishap a “significant issue,” adding: “We feel awful about this.” It’s now been fixed.

The blunder became a bigger problem for OpenAI when Italy expressed serious concerns over the privacy breach and decided to ban ChatGPT while it carries out a thorough investigation. The Italian authorities are also demanding details of measures OpenAI intends to take to prevent it from happening again.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
2023 was the year of AI. Here were the 9 moments that defined it
A person's hand holding a smartphone. The smartphone is showing the website for the ChatGPT generative AI.

ChatGPT may have launched in late 2022, but 2023 was undoubtedly the year that generative AI took hold of the public consciousness.

Not only did ChatGPT reach new highs (and lows), but a plethora of seismic changes shook the world, from incredible rival products to shocking scandals and everything in between. As the year draws to a close, we’ve taken a look back at the nine most important events in AI that took place over the last 12 months. It’s been a year like no other for AI -- here’s everything that made it memorable, starting at the beginning of 2023.
ChatGPT’s rivals rush to market

Read more
Google might finally have an answer to Chat GPT-4
ChatGPT versus Google on smartphones.

Google has announced the launch of its most extensive artificial intelligence model, Gemini, and it features three versions: Gemini Ultra, the largest and most capable; Gemini Pro, which is versatile across various tasks; and Gemini Nano, designed for specific tasks and mobile devices. The plan is to license Gemini to customers through Google Cloud for use in their applications, in a challenge to OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Gemini Ultra excels in massive multitask language understanding, outperforming human experts across subjects like math, physics, history, law, medicine, and ethics. It's expected to power Google products like Bard chatbot and Search Generative Experience. Google aims to monetize AI and plans to offer Gemini Pro through its cloud services.

Read more
One year ago, ChatGPT started a revolution
The ChatGPT website on a laptop's screen as the laptop sits on a counter in front of a black background.

Exactly one year ago, OpenAI put a simple little web app online called ChatGPT. It wasn't the first publicly available AI chatbot on the internet, and it also wasn't the first large language model. But over the following few months, it would grow into one of the biggest tech phenomenons in recent memory.

Thanks to how precise and natural its language abilities were, people were quick to shout that the sky was falling and that sentient artificial intelligence had arrived to consume us all. Or, the opposite side, which puts its hope for humanity within the walls of OpenAI. The debate between these polar extremes has continued to rage up until today, punctuated by the drama at OpenAI and the series of conspiracy theories that have been proposed as an explanation.

Read more