How AI and machine learning are shaping the future of spam filtering

It’s not an exaggeration to say that AI and machine learning have been booming in recent years. From AI-generated text and images to AI functionality integrated into smart devices and apps, AI appears to be here to stay. Fortunately and unfortunately, that also applies to our inboxes. The rise of AI has brought convenience to everyday technology, but it has benefitted spammers and malicious actors. 

AI helps them write convincing spam emails quickly and more successfully masquerade as legitimate sources. This tricks users into giving away personal information or money, downloading malicious attachments, or clicking on harmful links. Traditional inbox spam filters can’t keep up with the onslaught of unsolicited junk email. 

So, what’s the solution? Ironically enough, it’s AI. Let’s look at the evolution of spam, spam email filters, and why we need to fight AI with AI if we want to keep our inboxes safe.

Why classic spam filters don’t cut it anymore

Spam is commonplace in our online lives, accounting for 45.6% of all email traffic in 2023. It’s not something most of us worry about since it has been fairly easy to spot up until this point. If an email is poorly written, offers too-good-to-be-true offers, or claims to be from a Nigerian prince, most adept Internet users know to ignore it. And until now, it was unlikely such emails would bypass your spam inbox.

But the evolution of spam email, thanks to AI, has made it harder to spot right off the bat, both for humans and traditional spam email filters. Here are a few traditional methods of spam filtration, how they work, and why they’re not as effective at catching modern spam.

Rule-based filtering

This type of filter allows users to create specific rules and keywords to filter emails based on criteria such as sender, subject, or content. Downsides include:

• Can’t handle evolving spam techniques.
• Needs regular updating, and large sets of rules make it complicated.
• Doesn’t effectively protect against sophisticated, non-predictable spam.

Bayesian filtering

Bayesian filtering uses statistics to determine which emails are legitimate or spam based on factors like the frequencies and patterns observed in previously flagged spam emails. Limitations include:

• Can be fooled by spammers manipulating messages with random words. 
• Needs regular training with new data to remain effective. 
• Can produce false positives and negatives.

So, why aren't these filters effective anymore? One reason is the sheer volume of spam sent and received daily. Traditional spam filters are not able to effectively identify and block it. Another reason is that spammers are evolving to become more sophisticated in their tactics, thanks in large part to AI.

There are many consequences to this. For the end users, many spam messages are delivered straight to their inbox, while many legitimate messages can be mistakenly flagged as spam. Not only is this frustrating, but it can also be damaging to individuals and businesses alike. Due to decreased productivity and technical expenses, spam costs businesses $20.5 billion every year.

How AI fuels the problem

So how exactly does AI help spammers spam more effectively and bypass tried-and-true filters? The sophistication of generative AI means spammers can produce emails that are more convincing in the following ways:

Personalization – AI can create emails based on user data and preferences, making them seem legitimate and relevant, making users more likely to engage with them. 

Grammar and context – unlike traditional spam, AI-generated emails avoid typical red flags like spelling mistakes or generic language.

Better brand voice – AI is more effective at mimicking the style and tone of real brands so they appear authentic. 

How to tackle AI-generated spam

Knowledge is power, so staying on top of cybersecurity news is essential. Awareness of the latest threats will help you be prepared and know what to watch out for in your email inbox.
Choosing a reliable email provider with a sophisticated spam filter that also meets your personal or business needs is also essential. If your current email provider’s spam filter isn’t good enough for them, you could also purchase a standalone spam filter product. 

Learn more tips about battling email spam.

How AI is the solution

AI technology improves upon traditional spam filters with increased accuracy and adaptability. AI filters don’t just rely on spotting keywords, but analyze an entire email’s content and can recognize overall patterns. They keep up-to-date with the latest spam tactics and emerging threats, evolving from the data it learns without frequent rule adjustments or manual intervention.

Here are a few aspects of AI email filtering that make it so effective:

• Machine learning – analyzes and learns from large volumes of data to identify patterns, identifying spam messages with high accuracy. 
• Anomaly detection – identifies unusual or suspicious emails by detecting deviations from normal patterns, helping to flag new or rare spam.
• Natural language processing (NLP) - analyzes an email’s context, tone, and semantics to detect whether or not it’s spam.
• Deep learning – uses neural networks to automatically learn complex patterns in email content and metadata helping it spot even sophisticated spam.

As a real-world example, Gmail recently upgraded its spam filter with a text classification system called Resilient & Efficient Text Vectorizer. This helps it spot adversarial text manipulations such as invisible characters, emojis, and special characters that machines did not easily understand before now. 

Common concerns surrounding AI

AI is still an emerging technology, so standards and regulations are still being established. As a result, people have many questions and concerns when considering adopting AI for personal or business use.

Data privacy and security

A great deal of data is gleaned from incoming emails for AI content filtering to work properly. Because of this, concerns are warranted over whether this data can be used to build user profiles. When choosing an AI spam filter, knowing how your personal data will be treated is important. Ideally, it should be analyzed in a secure, encrypted environment where human access is restricted.

Scalability

AI requires a lot of processing power and memory, so organizations interested in adopting AI-based spam infrastructure must have access to sufficient computing resources. Ideally, you should look into ways of enhancing a system’s scalability and performance optimizing the algorithms and implementing efficient data processing techniques. 

Environmental impact

Speaking of processing power, the unfortunate reality of AI is its energy requirement. For example, the amount of electricity needed for a ChatGPT query is nearly ten times as much as needed for a Google search query. When AI infrastructure is based in countries that get energy from burning fossil fuels, the negative environmental impact is clear, and tech companies must address it as AI becomes even more ingrained in our daily lives.

AI spam filtering challenges

Although AI provides pretty advanced spam detection, it can’t guarantee 100% accuracy in its filter.  Here are a few reasons why: 

• Adversarial attacks – These are spam messages specifically designed to evade detection from AI models. 
• Contextual understanding – AI isn’t always the best at understanding the context of a message, leading to falsely flagging an email as spam. 
• Evolving spam techniques –- Spammers are constantly adapting to changing technologies, changing methods of bypassing spam filters. 
• Data imbalance – the number of spam and non-spam messages in AI training datasets is often imbalanced, making it hard to train AI models perfectly.

Despite spam filtering AI not being completely foolproof, it is still a superior option to traditional filters, where far more malicious emails tend to slip through the cracks.

Bringing email spam detection into the future

AI is becoming more ingrained in our online lives, and email communication is no exception. Because of the growing sophistication of AI-generated spam content that is difficult to distinguish, better alternatives to traditional spam filtering methods are a necessity.

To keep your inbox safe, choose a secure and reliable email provider that follows the latest security trends and adjusts quickly to rising threats.