– Google files lawsuit against unidentified parties to stop fraudulent advertisements for its Bard AI division

Google initiated legal action on Monday, alleging that scammers from Vietnam deceptively lured users into clicking on fake advertisements promoting Google’s Bard artificial intelligence chatbot, subsequently gaining access to their social media login credentials. This lawsuit aims to set a precedent for protecting users from AI-related fraudulent activities.

Key Points

• The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in California, accuses three unidentified individuals from Vietnam of creating counterfeit ads for the Bard AI chatbot under the guise of Google.
• Users who interacted with these ads were exposed to ransomware, leading to the theft of their social media account login details.
• Google is pursuing legal action against the scammers for trademark infringements and breaches of contract to prevent them from fabricating unauthorized profiles using U.S. domain registrars.
• The scammers targeted small businesses and individuals with active business and advertising accounts on a prominent social media platform, as stated in Google’s complaint.
• Halimah DeLaine Prado, Google’s legal counsel, emphasized that a successful outcome in this case could establish a precedent for other major tech companies to combat similar AI-related scams and protect users effectively.

Additional Information

• Google’s legal efforts, led by DeLaine Prado, are part of an ongoing strategy to safeguard consumers, particularly small businesses, and establish crucial legal precedents in emerging technological domains.
• Since April of the current year, Google has issued approximately 300 takedown requests related to false advertising, reflecting the escalating trend of internet and phone scams and attacks over the past year.
• Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime report for 2022 indicates a significant increase in online scam losses, with Americans reportedly losing over \(6.9 billion to such schemes in 2021, a figure that surged to over \)10.2 billion in 2022.
• Experts have observed a rise in AI-related fraudulent activities, including instances like a recent case where scammers utilized AI to impersonate an individual’s family member and extort ransom payments.

Side Note

• In a separate legal action, Google is also confronting a group of scammers for misusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to falsely target rival businesses with copyright infringement claims. The scammers allegedly exploited multiple Google accounts to submit fictitious copyright infringement notices against other entities.