Generative AI has greatly expanded the kit available to attackers and other poor actors. It’s now possible to do everything from to creating false documents.
OpenAI, the biggest relational AI company of them all, knows this better than anyone. And it has just invested in another AI company that helps organizations defend against these kinds of problems.
New York-based has raised a$ 43 million Series A co-led by OpenAI’s business finance and Andreessen Horowitz, it Wednesday. This marks OpenAI’s initial investment in a security company, OpenAI confirmed to TechCrunch.  ,
Adaptive Security analyzes AI-generated “hacks” to train people to place these threats. You may pick up the phone to listen to the voice of your CTO asking for a confirmation code. That wouldn’t be your genuine Manager, but a parody generated by Adaptive Security.  ,
Adaptive Security’s system doesn’t really spoof telephone calls: It even covers texts and emails, while scoring which parts of a business might be most vulnerable and training personnel to place the risks.
The company focuses on tricks that require a human worker to do something they’re never supposed to, like press on a poor link. These kinds of” social engineering” hacks, while basic, have led to huge losses — think of Axie Infinity, which lost over$ 600 million due for one of its developers in 2022.
Artificial equipment have made social engineering hacks easier than ever, co-founder and CEO Brian Long told TechCrunch. Launched in 2023, Adaptive now has over 100 users, with Long saying good feedback from them helped bring OpenAI to the cover table.  ,
It doesn’t hurt that Long is a veteran entrepreneur with two previous successes: mobile ad startup TapCommerce, which ( reportedly for over$ 100 million ) and ad-tech firm Attentive, which was last valued at over$ 10 billion in 2021 according to
Long told TechCrunch that Adaptive Security will use its latest funding mainly on hiring professionals to build out its product and keep up in the AI “arms culture” against bad actors.  ,
Adaptive Security joins a long list of various computer businesses working on the growth in AI risks. Cyberhaven just raised$ 100 million at a$ 1 billion valuation to help stop staff from putting sensitive info in tools like ChatGPT, Forbes . There’s also Snyk, which partly credits the rise of insecure AI-generated code for helping push its ARR north of$ 300 million. And deepfake detection startup GetReal just raised$ 17.5 million last month.  ,
As AI threats become more sophisticated, Long has one simple tip for company employees worried about getting their voice cloned by hackers.  ,” Delete your voicemail”, he recommends.