Microsoft continues to integrate new artificial intelligence technology into its products and today announced a cybersecurity “copilot” to help companies track and defend against hacking attempts. This tool is part of Microsoft’s attempt to dominate the fast-growing field of “generative” AI, which uses algorithms trained on internet text and can summarize and write text and computer code and have relatively complex conversations with humans. Microsoft Security Copilot aggregates data of hacking threats from a company’s computers and external databases, allowing workers to ask simple questions about what kind of attempted hacks are hitting their network.

Microsoft hopes that the tool will make the lives of cybersecurity professionals easier and allow people with less specialized skills to work as security experts. However, hackers have already begun using generative AI chatbots to write code that can be used in attacks, and this tool could be used for malicious purposes too. Microsoft is competing with Google and other tech companies to lead the way in generative AI and has integrated ChatGPT-based tech into its Bing search engine, productivity tools such as Word and Excel and cloud software that it sells to other businesses.

The bottom line: Cybersecurity is a nightmare for many companies, and they are desperate for more skilled cybersecurity professionals to help them monitor and defend against hack attacks. Microsoft is pitching Copilot as a way to help employees better narrow down and deal with risks more efficiently. The program runs on both OpenAI’s ChatGPT tech and Microsoft’s own security-focused AI algorithms. It’s claimed that the tool will make cybersecurity jobs easier and accessible to more people, allowing users to input computer code into Copilot and receive a visual flowchart about how the code works, readable by someone who has no programming experience.