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Google announced it’s pursuing lawsuits against two groups that have sought to exploit the company’s services and users.
Lawsuit Targets Scammers Abusing Hype Around AI
The first lawsuit targets scammers who misled social media users about Google’s new AI chatbot Bard.
“As public excitement in new generative AI tools has increased, scammers are increasingly taking advantage of unsuspecting users,” said Halimah DeLaine Prado, Google’s General Counsel.
The fraudsters created social media pages and online ads that encouraged people to “download” Bard, a free AI chatbot that does not need downloading.
Instead, the links led victims to malware that compromised their social media accounts. Google has filed around 300 takedowns related to this group since April.
The lawsuit seeks to prevent the scammers from continuing to set up domains for spreading malware. The case could set an important precedent for combating AI ethics abuses.
Google notes that it blocks over 100 million phishing attempts daily and scans billions of apps for malware.
Mass Copyright Fraud Targets & Harms Small Businesses
The second lawsuit involves bad actors submitting fraudulent copyright claims to remove competitor websites.
Google’s DMCA takedown process allows copyright holders to submit infringement notices, which Google must respond to by removing flagged content.
However, scammers exploited this process using multiple Google accounts to eliminate over 100,000 businesses’ websites.
“These fraudulent claims resulted in the removal of over 100,000 businesses’ websites, costing them millions of dollars and thousands of hours in lost employee time,” said DeLaine Prado.
Affected business owners described the impacts as devastating, with some companies destroyed and jobs lost. Digital rights groups have cautioned that DMCA abuse remains a growing threat.
Google Seeks To Set Precedents & Deter Future Abuse
Google hopes the lawsuits will deter others from AI scams and copyright abuse.
“Just as AI fraudsters and copyright scammers hope to fly under the radar — we believe that appropriate legal action and working with government officials puts scammers squarely in the crosshairs of justice, promoting a safer internet for everyone,” DeLaine Prado stated.
The next steps will see the cases move forward in court as Google seeks to hold the defendants accountable.
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