Abstract—We conduct the first large-scale user study examining how users interact with an AI Code assistant to solve a variety of security related tasks across different programming languages. Overall, we find that participants who had access to an AI assistant based on OpenAI’s codex-davinci-002 model wrote significantly less secure code than those without access. Additionally, participants with access to an AI assistant were more likely to believe they wrote secure code than those without access to the AI assistant. Furthermore, we find that participants who trusted the AI less and engaged more with the language and format of their prompts (e.g. re-phrasing, adjusting temperature) provided code with fewer security vulnerabilities. Finally, in order to better inform the design of future AI-based Code assistants, we provide an in-depth analysis of participants’ language and interaction behavior, as well as release our user interface as an instrument to conduct similar studies in the future.
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Artificial Intelligence Assistants: Convenient vs. Security and Privacy
Artificial Intelligence, intelligence demonstrated by machines, has emerged as one of the most convenient and personable applications of everyday life. Specifically, AI powers digital personal assistants to answer user questions and automate everyday tasks. AI Assistants listen continuously to answer the user, even when not in use. Why is this a problem? For a hacker, this makes any digital assistant a potential listening device, a major security and privacy issue. While some companies are handling this situation well, others are falling behind as their AI components are slowly dying in the consumer market. Which digital assistant is best and most secure you may ask? This paper will first detail how each AI assistant works from a technical perspective. Then based on survey results, this paper will detail how AI Assistants rank in terms of overall security and performance
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- Award ID(s):
- 1754054
- PAR ID:
- 10284694
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ADMI 2021: The Symposium of Computing at Minority Institutions
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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