Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., has initiated legal action against five unidentified fraudsters who deceived individuals seeking Google’s AI chatbot Bard, resulting in the dissemination of ransomware onto their servers.
In a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California, Google alleged that the fraudsters established social media profiles to lure users into downloading a fake version of Bard. Consequently, users’ devices were infected with malicious software upon downloading the file, granting scammers unauthorized access to their social media accounts.
This lawsuit, a first of its kind for a prominent tech company like Google, underscores the emerging legal challenges accompanying the proliferation of artificial intelligence technologies worldwide.
Halimah DeLaine Prado, Google’s chief legal officer, emphasized in a recent blog post the increasing vulnerability of unsuspecting users to scams as public interest in innovative AI applications grows.
The identities of the fraudsters, operating under aliases such as “Google AI,” “AIGoogle,” and “AiGoogle,” remain undisclosed, hiding behind fabricated Facebook profiles like “AIGoogle Bard FB” and “AIGoogleBard.” It is customary in the cybersecurity realm to litigate against anonymous entities with the intention of amending the complaint once their identities are revealed.
Given that the fraudsters exploited Google’s brand in their scheme, the company is pursuing legal action for both trademark infringement and breach of contract.
Furthermore, Google has recently filed another lawsuit against these fraudsters for orchestrating a campaign involving multiple fake Facebook accounts to lodge numerous false trademark infringement complaints against their competitors. This subsequent lawsuit, also lodged in the Northern District of California, alleges that two individuals operated approximately 65 Facebook accounts to file hundreds of counterfeit trademark infringement notifications against over 117,000 websites.
According to DeLaine Prado’s blog post, these legal actions are part of Google’s proactive stance in setting essential legal precedents in emerging technology domains.
She emphasized the significance of establishing clear regulations against fraud, scams, and harassment, irrespective of the intriguing technological landscape.
