Cyber criminals are beginning to use artificial intelligence to make their operations more effective — and their use goes way beyond creating better bait for phishing.

Just as in legitimate business, discussions about AI among criminals have accelerated this year compared to 2023, researchers from cybersecurity group Intel 471 reported in a new study published Wednesday, Cybercriminals and AI: Not Just Better Phishing.

Threat actors are closely watching, and they’re experimenting, the researchers said. Some threat actors are claiming to use AI for activities such as creation of deepfake videos, defeating facial recognition, and summarizing data stolen in data breaches. Others are building AI into their hacking tools or creating malicious chatbots.