The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued a stark warning about the increasing vulnerability of chatbots to manipulation by hackers, leading to potentially serious real-world consequences. The alert comes as concerns rise over the practice of ""prompt injection"" attacks, where individuals deliberately create input or prompts designed to manipulate the behaviour of language models that underpin chatbots. If users input unfamiliar statements or exploit word combinations to override a model’s original script, the model can execute unintended actions. This could potentially lead to the generation of offensive content, unauthorised access to confidential information, or even data breaches. As chatbots continue to play an integral role in various online interactions and transactions, the NCSC’s warning serves as a timely reminder of the imperative to guard against evolving cybersecurity threats.