Google Sues Three Fraudsters Who Create Fake Ads For AI Chatbots

There is a poenipuan that uses the name Google Bard. (photo: twitter @therealbardguy)

JAKARTA - Google has filed a lawsuit against three fraudsters who created fake ads for Google Bard's artificial intelligence chatbot update, which, when downloaded, actually installs malware.

The lawsuit was filed on November 13 and named the defendant as "DOES 1-3," because they remain anonymous. Google says fraudsters have used their trademarks specifically related to AI products, such as "Google, Google AI, and Bard," to "attract suspicious victims from downloading malware to their computers."

Google provides examples of fraudulent social media pages and trademark-based content that make them look like Google products, with an invitation to download free versions of Bard and other AI products.

Google says that suspicious users unknowingly download malware by following these links, which are designed to access and exploit user social media login credentials and primarily target businesses and advertisers.

The tech company is calling on courts for damage, lawyer fees awards, permanent injunctive recovery for injuries sustained by the defendant, all the profits made by fraudsters, comprehensive restriction orders, and anything the court considers "fair and reasonable."

This lawsuit comes as users of artificial intelligence services (AI), including chatbot services, worldwide. According to the latest data, Google's Bard bot gets 49.7 million unique visitors every month.

The popular AI chatbot service from OpenAI, ChatGPT, has more than 100 million monthly users with nearly 1.5 billion monthly visitors to its website.

This increase in the popularity and accessibility of AI services also brings many lawsuits against companies developing the technology. OpenAI, Google, and Meta parent companies Facebook and Instagram have all been involved in legal battles in the past year.

In July, Google was involved in the Crush action lawsuit. Eight individuals who filed lawsuits on behalf of "millions of class members," such as internet users and copyright holders, said Google had violated their privacy and rights. This comes after Google renewed its new privacy policy with data collection capabilities for AI training purposes.