Original title: Can AI extort like humans do? Understanding the construction of illicit genres by large language models vs humans
Emily Chiang, Lily Calloway, Jenna Elliott, Tim Grant · September 2026
Criminals could potentially use artificial intelligence to write malicious messages, such as extortion notesletters that demand money or something else by threatening harm. demanding money. To study this risk, researchers tested whether large language models can write commercial extortion notes like humans do. They tested promptsthe instructions or questions given to an AI to get it to write something. on five different models to see which tricks bypassed safety rules. Asking for fictional stories or simple examples worked best to get the models to produce the notes. The researchers then analyzed the structure and communicative goals of the resulting texts. They found that artificial intelligence notes share most of the same core functions as human notes, but they add two new parts: administrative details and invitations to cooperate. The computer-generated texts also use formal language much more often. Finally, each tested model leaves subtle, unique patterns in its writing. These identifiable clues could help police trace who generated a threat letter, help companies build better safeguards, and help linguists study communication styles.
Imagine two chefs each trying to bake a cake from the same recipe. One chef follows the recipe exactly, but the other adds a few extra steps—like a fancy garnish and a note asking for feedback. Both cakes look similar, but the extra steps give away which chef made it. In this paper, the chefs are humans and computer programs, the recipe is the structure of a threatening letter, and the extra steps are two new patterns that the computer programs tend to add.
If AI can craft convincing extortion notes, criminals could use it to scale threats. But the subtle differences—extra formal language and two unique rhetorical moves—give law enforcement a way to spot AI-assisted crime. This also pushes developers to build better safeguards and helps linguists understand how AI adapts genres.
This study only examines one genre (commercial extortion notes) and uses a limited set of prompts and models. The human comparison data comes from a single prior study. Results may not generalize to other illicit genres or newer LLMs.
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Can AI extort like humans do? Understanding the construction of illicit genres by large language models vs humans — Emily Chiang, Lily Calloway, Jenna Elliott et al. — AI & Society — doi:10.1007/s00146-026-03334-w
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.