Scams have become rampant, emphasizing the need for heightened awareness while navigating emails, websites, or even phone calls. Thankfully, technology is stepping in to help; Google is developing artificial intelligence tools designed to protect users from falling prey to online fraud—specifically within Chrome.

An insightful observer, Leopeva64, has identified that Google is trialing a new feature aimed at detecting scams in its Chrome browser. In this day and age, the use of AI is pivotal. While the label of the feature, “Client Side Detection Brand and Intent for Scam Detection,” may not immediately suggest it, the description reveals that it utilizes AI technology: “Enables on devices LLM output on pages to inquire for brand and intent of the page.” The term LLM refers to large language models, which underpin many AI services and applications—in this case, it seems designed to identify potentially fraudulent websites.

To better articulate what this feature aims to accomplish, Leopeva provided an explanation to Gemini, which was then summarized as follows: The feature utilizes an LLM directly on your device to assess two main factors. Firstly, it checks for brand misrepresentation—typically when scammers replicate authentic brands to deceive users into visiting their illicit sites. Secondly, it evaluates suspicious intent by detecting key indicators associated with scams and phishing efforts. While it’s always wise to approach AI-generated results with caution, this seems to be a reasonable interpretation of the functionality.

This feature is currently active in the latest edition of Chrome Canary, a testing platform for Chrome’s experimental features (known as flags). Although it’s uncertain if it operates effectively just yet, enabling it is straightforward. Open Chrome Canary, navigate to chrome://flags, and search for “client-side-detection-brand-and-page-intent” (without quotation marks). Then, select “Enabled” from the default drop-down menu and click “Relaunch” to activate it.

Credit: Jake Peterson

Chrome isn’t the sole browser enhancing its capabilities to combat scams with AI. Just recently, Leopeva64 discovered a similar feature in Microsoft Edge, featuring a “scareware blocker.” Unlike the more obscure terminology of Google’s update, this one straightforwardly states, “Allow Microsoft to use AI to detect potential tech scams.”