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AI Adoption Sentiment in Cybercrime Forums
Public perception and adoption success of AI among underground forum users based on research data.
Primary Sources
Cybercriminals gave AI a go — and came away disappointed ... - Euronews
Published on 05/05/2026 - 15:34 GMT+2 Cybercriminals are having a hard time incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) in their work, a new analysis found. A new pre-print study from the University of Edinburgh analysed over 100 million forum posts from cyber criminals using the database CrimeBB, which scrapes data from underground forums. The data was analysed both manually and by using a large language model (LLM). While cybercriminals have expressed interest in learning how to use AI tools, the technology has not significantly changed their way of “working,” the study found. “Many of the reviews and discussions describe [AI] tools as not particularly useful,” the study reads. Researchers found “no significant evidence” that hackers had any success using AI in improving their hacking activity, either as a learning aid or in developing more effective tools. AI coding assistants are mostly useful for those who are already skilled at coding, so AI models that offer coding help fail to give them any significant “bump” when trying to break into devices or find security workarounds, the study added. “You’ve gotta first learn the ropes of programming by yourself before you can use AI and ACTUALLY benefit from it,” one post quoted by the study reads. The main impact AI has had so far on less-than-legal online activity is in easy-to-automate areas, such as social media bot creation, some romance scams and search engine optimisation (SEO) fraud, or the creation of fake websites that get pushed up in search result rankings to make money from advertising. Reviews suggest that even the most experienced hackers use chatbots to answer coding questions or generate “cheatsheets” to help them code. The AI that actually has been falls under “mainstream and legitimate products,” such as Anthropic’s Claude or OpenAI’s Codex, rather than specific cybercrime-specific AI models such as WormGPT that hackers designed to produce malware code or phishing emails Many of the posts analysed by the study are about cyber criminals asking for techniques to bypass the security regulations on those mainstream models, but they seem to have a hard time getting the AI systems to override their safety settings. Instead, cyber criminals are forced to pivot to older, lower quality open-source AI models that are easier to jailbreak. They tend to be less useful and “require significant resources,” the researchers found. Their study suggests that the guardrails put in place by AI companies are ...
Cybercriminals struggling to adopt AI in their work, research ... - AOL
Cybercriminals struggling to adopt AI in their work, research suggests (PA Archive)Cybercriminals have been struggling to use artificial intelligence (AI) to benefit their work, new research which analysed around 100 million posts from underground and dark web cybercrime communities suggests.The researchers found that most cybercriminals lack the skills or resources to use such innovation in their criminal activities.The team of researchers from the universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Cambridge analysed discussions from the CrimeBB database that contains more than 100 million posts scraped from dark web and underground cybercrime forums.A combination of machine learning tools and manual sampling techniques were used to analyse the conversations.The researchers were searching for posts that discussed how cybercriminals, often dubbed hackers, were experimenting with AI technologies from November 2022 onwards, which also marked the release of ChatGPT.They found that rather than reducing the skill barrier level for committing cybercrime, AI coding assistants are mostly proving useful for those who are already skilled as significant skills and knowledge are needed to to use the AI tools effectively.The researchers found that AI was used most successfully for running social media bots that conduct misogynistic harassment and make money from fraud, and for hiding patterns that are often detectable by cybersecurity defenders.However they noted that reassuringly, guardrails on the major chatbots are having a significant impact in reducing harm.Dr Ben Collier, senior lecturer in digital methods at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science, said: “Cybercriminals are experimenting with these tools, but as far as we can tell it’s not delivering them real benefits in their own work.“Our message to industry is: don’t panic yet.“The immediate danger comes from companies and members of the public adopting poorly secured AI systems themselves, opening them up to catastrophic new attacks that can be performed by cybercriminals with little effort or skill.”The researchers found that many of those in cybercrime communities were panicking about potentially losing their “day jobs” in IT due to the impact of AI in mainstream software industries.This could potentially then drive them and others towards more cybercriminal activity, the research suggests.The report authors warn that the main risks to industry are likely to be from adopting poorly se...
AI and Cybercrime Study: Hackers Struggle With AI Tools
A comprehensive study analyzing over 97,895 underground forum threads found that cybercriminals are largely failing to weaponize AI for sophisticated hacking. Instead, AI and cybercrime intersect mainly in low-skill activities like SEO spam and romance scams. The research suggests AI guardrails are working better than expected.
Cybercriminals struggling to adopt AI in their work, research suggests
The researchers found that most cybercriminals lack the skills or resources to use such innovation in their criminal activities.
