Published on: May 9, 2025
Google is introducing new AI-powered defenses to help protect Chrome users from scams.
The company announced Thursday that it’s now using a version of its Gemini AI model, Gemini Nano, that runs directly on users’ devices to identify and alert them about online scams on desktop.
It’s also launching new AI-powered warnings for Chrome on Android for suspicious or spammy notifications.
Chrome’s Enhanced Protection mode in Safe Browsing offers the highest level of security, providing twice the protection against phishing and other online threats compared to the Standard Protection mode.
Now, with the integration of Gemini Nano, users in Enhanced Protection mode will receive an extra layer of defense specifically against online scams — even against new scams that haven’t been encountered before.
“Gemini Nano’s LLM is perfect for this use because of its ability to distill the varied, complex nature of websites, helping us adapt to new scam tactics more quickly,” Google said in a blog post.
On Android, Google will alert users about potentially harmful, spammy, or misleading notifications on Android. This is because scam websites can send notifications to a user’s phone if the feature is enabled.
When Chrome’s on-device machine learning model detects a suspicious notification, it will issue a warning. Users can unsubscribe from the notifications right away or view the blocked content. If the warning seems incorrect, users can choose to allow future notifications from that site.
Phiroze Parakh, senior director of engineering for Google Search, said combating scammers “has always been an evolution game,” where cybercriminals continuously adapt and evolve as tech companies implement new protections.
“Now, both sides have new tools,” she said. “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?”
As part of the announcement, Google also shared that it’s been using its AI to prevent scams in Search, and that it’s helped the company catch 20 times more scam pages than in the past.
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