Latest news with #PhirozeParakh
CNN
08-05-2025
- CNN
Google says AI is making searching and browsing the web safer
Almost anyone who has used the internet has probably experienced that alarming moment when a window pops up claiming your device has a virus, encouraging you to click for tech support or download security software. It's a common online scam, and one that Google is aiming to fight more aggressively using artificial intelligence. Google says it's now using a version of its Gemini AI model that runs on users' devices to detect and warn users of these so-called 'tech support' scams. It's just one of a number of ways Google is using advancements in AI to better protect users from scams across Chrome, Search and its Android operating system, the company said in a blog post Thursday. The announcement comes as AI has enabled bad actors to more easily create large quantities of convincing, fake content — effectively lowering the barrier to carrying out scams that can be used to steal victims' money or personal information. Consumers worldwide lost more than $1 trillion to scams last year, according to the lobbying group Global Anti-Scam Alliance. So, Google and other organizations are increasingly using AI to fight scammers, too. Phiroze Parakh, senior director of engineering for Google Search, said that fighting scammers 'has always been an evolution game,' where bad actors learn and evolve as tech companies put new protections in place. 'Now, both sides have new tools,' Parakh said in an interview with CNN. 'So, there's this question of, how do you get to use this tool more effectively? Who is being a little more proactive about it?' Although Google has long used machine learning to protect its services, newer AI advancements have led to improved language understanding and pattern recognition, enabling the tech to identify scams faster and more effectively. Google said that on Chrome's 'enhanced protection' safe browsing mode on desktop, its on-device AI model can now effectively scan a webpage in real-time when a user clicks on it to look for potential threats. That matters because, sometimes, bad actors make their pages appear differently to Google's existing crawler tools for identifying scams than they do to users, a tactic called 'cloaking' that the company warned last year was on the rise. And because the model, called Gemini Nano, runs on your device, the service works faster and protects users' privacy, said Jasika Bawa, group product manager for Google Chrome. As with Chrome's existing safe browsing mode, if a user attempts to access a potentially unsafe site, they'll see a warning before being given the option to continue to the page. In another update, Google will warn Android users if they're receiving alerts from fishy sites in Chrome and let them automatically unsubscribe, so long as they have Chrome website notifications enabled. Google has also used AI to detect scammy results and prevent them from showing up in Search, regardless what kind of device users are on. Since Google Search first launched AI-powered versions of its anti-scam systems three years ago, it now blocks 20 times the number of problematic pages. 'We've seen this incredible advantage with our ability to understand language and nuance and relationships between entities that really made a change in how we detect these scammy actors,' he said, adding that in 2024 alone, the company removed hundreds of millions of scam search results daily because of the AI advancements. Parakh said, for example, that AI has made it better able to identify and remove a scam where bad actors create fake 'customer service' pages or phone numbers for airlines. Google says it has has now decreased scam attacks in airline-related searches by 80%. Google isn't the only company using AI to fight bad actors. British mobile phone company O2 said last year it was fighting phone scammers with 'Daisy,' a conversational AI chatbot meant to keep fraudsters on the phone, giving them less time to talk with would-be human victims. Microsoft has also piloted a tool that uses AI to analyze phone conversations to determine whether a call may be fraudulent and alert the user accordingly. And the US Treasury Department said last year that AI had helped it identify and recover $1 billion worth of check fraud in fiscal 2024 alone.
CNN
08-05-2025
- CNN
Google says AI is making searching and browsing the web safer
Almost anyone who has used the internet has probably experienced that alarming moment when a window pops up claiming your device has a virus, encouraging you to click for tech support or download security software. It's a common online scam, and one that Google is aiming to fight more aggressively using artificial intelligence. Google says it's now using a version of its Gemini AI model that runs on users' devices to detect and warn users of these so-called 'tech support' scams. It's just one of a number of ways Google is using advancements in AI to better protect users from scams across Chrome, Search and its Android operating system, the company said in a blog post Thursday. The announcement comes as AI has enabled bad actors to more easily create large quantities of convincing, fake content — effectively lowering the barrier to carrying out scams that can be used to steal victims' money or personal information. Consumers worldwide lost more than $1 trillion to scams last year, according to the lobbying group Global Anti-Scam Alliance. So, Google and other organizations are increasingly using AI to fight scammers, too. Phiroze Parakh, senior director of engineering for Google Search, said that fighting scammers 'has always been an evolution game,' where bad actors learn and evolve as tech companies put new protections in place. 'Now, both sides have new tools,' Parakh said in an interview with CNN. 'So, there's this question of, how do you get to use this tool more effectively? Who is being a little more proactive about it?' Although Google has long used machine learning to protect its services, newer AI advancements have led to improved language understanding and pattern recognition, enabling the tech to identify scams faster and more effectively. Google said that on Chrome's 'enhanced protection' safe browsing mode on desktop, its on-device AI model can now effectively scan a webpage in real-time when a user clicks on it to look for potential threats. That matters because, sometimes, bad actors make their pages appear differently to Google's existing crawler tools for identifying scams than they do to users, a tactic called 'cloaking' that the company warned last year was on the rise. And because the model, called Gemini Nano, runs on your device, the service works faster and protects users' privacy, said Jasika Bawa, group product manager for Google Chrome. As with Chrome's existing safe browsing mode, if a user attempts to access a potentially unsafe site, they'll see a warning before being given the option to continue to the page. In another update, Google will warn Android users if they're receiving alerts from fishy sites in Chrome and let them automatically unsubscribe, so long as they have Chrome website notifications enabled. Google has also used AI to detect scammy results and prevent them from showing up in Search, regardless what kind of device users are on. Since Google Search first launched AI-powered versions of its anti-scam systems three years ago, it now blocks 20 times the number of problematic pages. 'We've seen this incredible advantage with our ability to understand language and nuance and relationships between entities that really made a change in how we detect these scammy actors,' he said, adding that in 2024 alone, the company removed hundreds of millions of scam search results daily because of the AI advancements. Parakh said, for example, that AI has made it better able to identify and remove a scam where bad actors create fake 'customer service' pages or phone numbers for airlines. Google says it has has now decreased scam attacks in airline-related searches by 80%. Google isn't the only company using AI to fight bad actors. British mobile phone company O2 said last year it was fighting phone scammers with 'Daisy,' a conversational AI chatbot meant to keep fraudsters on the phone, giving them less time to talk with would-be human victims. Microsoft has also piloted a tool that uses AI to analyze phone conversations to determine whether a call may be fraudulent and alert the user accordingly. And the US Treasury Department said last year that AI had helped it identify and recover $1 billion worth of check fraud in fiscal 2024 alone.
CNN
08-05-2025
- CNN
Google says AI is making searching and browsing the web safer
Almost anyone who has used the internet has probably experienced that alarming moment when a window pops up claiming your device has a virus, encouraging you to click for tech support or download security software. It's a common online scam, and one that Google is aiming to fight more aggressively using artificial intelligence. Google says it's now using a version of its Gemini AI model that runs on users' devices to detect and warn users of these so-called 'tech support' scams. It's just one of a number of ways Google is using advancements in AI to better protect users from scams across Chrome, Search and its Android operating system, the company said in a blog post Thursday. The announcement comes as AI has enabled bad actors to more easily create large quantities of convincing, fake content — effectively lowering the barrier to carrying out scams that can be used to steal victims' money or personal information. Consumers worldwide lost more than $1 trillion to scams last year, according to the lobbying group Global Anti-Scam Alliance. So, Google and other organizations are increasingly using AI to fight scammers, too. Phiroze Parakh, senior director of engineering for Google Search, said that fighting scammers 'has always been an evolution game,' where bad actors learn and evolve as tech companies put new protections in place. 'Now, both sides have new tools,' Parakh said in an interview with CNN. 'So, there's this question of, how do you get to use this tool more effectively? Who is being a little more proactive about it?' Although Google has long used machine learning to protect its services, newer AI advancements have led to improved language understanding and pattern recognition, enabling the tech to identify scams faster and more effectively. Google said that on Chrome's 'enhanced protection' safe browsing mode on desktop, its on-device AI model can now effectively scan a webpage in real-time when a user clicks on it to look for potential threats. That matters because, sometimes, bad actors make their pages appear differently to Google's existing crawler tools for identifying scams than they do to users, a tactic called 'cloaking' that the company warned last year was on the rise. And because the model, called Gemini Nano, runs on your device, the service works faster and protects users' privacy, said Jasika Bawa, group product manager for Google Chrome. As with Chrome's existing safe browsing mode, if a user attempts to access a potentially unsafe site, they'll see a warning before being given the option to continue to the page. In another update, Google will warn Android users if they're receiving alerts from fishy sites in Chrome and let them automatically unsubscribe, so long as they have Chrome website notifications enabled. Google has also used AI to detect scammy results and prevent them from showing up in Search, regardless what kind of device users are on. Since Google Search first launched AI-powered versions of its anti-scam systems three years ago, it now blocks 20 times the number of problematic pages. 'We've seen this incredible advantage with our ability to understand language and nuance and relationships between entities that really made a change in how we detect these scammy actors,' he said, adding that in 2024 alone, the company removed hundreds of millions of scam search results daily because of the AI advancements. Parakh said, for example, that AI has made it better able to identify and remove a scam where bad actors create fake 'customer service' pages or phone numbers for airlines. Google says it has has now decreased scam attacks in airline-related searches by 80%. Google isn't the only company using AI to fight bad actors. British mobile phone company O2 said last year it was fighting phone scammers with 'Daisy,' a conversational AI chatbot meant to keep fraudsters on the phone, giving them less time to talk with would-be human victims. Microsoft has also piloted a tool that uses AI to analyze phone conversations to determine whether a call may be fraudulent and alert the user accordingly. And the US Treasury Department said last year that AI had helped it identify and recover $1 billion worth of check fraud in fiscal 2024 alone.
Forbes
08-05-2025
- Forbes
Google Confirms Android Attack Warning — Powered By AI
When it comes to the attention of cybercriminals, you can bet that Google holds it. Whether it's the latest confirmed attack targeting Gmail users, password security threats, or zero-day vulnerabilities, Google is right there in tight focus. Of course, Google is constantly shining on the flip side of the cybersecurity coin as well, updating software as it fixes vulnerabilities, making changes behind the scenes in response to novel attack methodologies, and suspending malicious accounts as they are detected. Now, in a newly published report, Google has confirmed it is bringing new AI-powered security warnings to help defend against Android attacks. Large language models are not new to Google, nor is using them to help protect users from scammers. A newly published report authored by Jasika Bawa, Google's Chrome group product manager, and Phiroze Parakh, a senior director of engineering with Google search, brings us right up to date, however. If you have ever wondered just how Google uses AI in the fight against search scams and attackers targeting Android and Chrome, this is likely the report you have been waiting for. When it comes to search, for example, Google said that it is now blocking 'hundreds of millions' of scam results every single day, and AI protections have meant that it can now catch the malicious pages with a success rate that has increased by 20 times compared to before the AI was implemented. This, the report said, is because these large language models mean Google is able to 'analyze vast quantities of text on the web, identify coordinated scam campaigns and detect emerging threats,' to keep one step ahead of the attackers. Bawa and Parakh pointed to airline customer services as being an example of this in action, claiming an 80% reduction in scam activity when it comes to being tricked into calling a malicious telephone number. Gemini Nano on desktop devices, in conjunction with the Enhanced Protection mode of Chrome's Safe Browsing feature, provides an on-device approach to scam defense. 'We're already using this new AI-powered approach to protect users from remote tech support scams,' the report said, continuing that Google hopes to expand the protection to Android users in the future. However, no date was given for when this might be. There is some good news, though, for those readers who don't like playing the waiting game. Google has said that it is launching new AI-powered notification warnings for those using Chrome on Android devices. 'When Chrome's on-device machine learning model flags a notification,' Google confirmed, 'you'll receive a warning with the option to either unsubscribe or view the content that was blocked.' The idea being that this will help to protect against malicious and misleading notifications, and if it gets it wrong, hey, these things happen, you will still have the option of continuing to receive notifications from the site in question. Although there will always be privacy concerns when using AI of any kind, justifiable or not, there's no denying that the Android attack protection that will derive from the simple act of filtering out more nefarious notifications is most welcome.
