Google is ramping up its efforts to combat online scams across its platforms by building on its “download apps, not traps” initiative. The tech giant is focusing on enhancing existing and implementing new AI-driven defenses for Search, Chrome, and Android to better protect users from malicious activities. Recent advancements in artificial intelligence have significantly improved Google’s capabilities to detect and block scams, particularly in Search.
Notably, there has been a dramatic reduction in airline customer service impersonation scams, which have seen an 80 percent decline. This effective defense system employs AI along with enhanced classifiers to identify and eliminate unsafe results, enabling Google to block “hundreds of millions of scammy results every day.” In addition to improving Search, Google is updating Chrome’s Safe Browsing feature, which has been in place since 2007.
The new on-device Gemini Nano model enhances real-time protection against emerging threats, enabling quicker identification of risky websites and scams that may not yet be widely recognized. Google emphasizes that Gemini Nano’s large language model is highly suitable for understanding the complex nature of various websites, allowing for more effective adaptation against new scam tactics. On Android, Google is introducing AI-powered tools to address notification spam.
This feature aims to alert users about unwanted notifications that may come from compromised legitimate websites. The warning will offer options to unsubscribe or review blocked content. Users will also have the opportunity to dismiss warnings if they believe they were misinformed about the safety of the notifications.
These initiatives reflect Google’s ongoing commitment to create a safer online environment by staying proactive against evolving scam tactics, as demonstrated by their recent work on preventing screen-sharing scams.
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