Google has expanded Chrome's anti-scam defenses with on-device AI, using Gemini Nano to support Enhanced Protection in Safe Browsing on desktop. The company says this helps Chrome analyze risky sites locally and provide protection even against scam pages that have not yet been seen by Google's systems.
Enhanced Protection is Chrome's highest Safe Browsing level, and Google says it keeps users twice as safe from phishing and other scams compared with Standard Protection. Adding Gemini Nano gives the browser another way to interpret suspicious pages, especially scams that rely on visual tricks, urgent language, fake support alerts or other patterns that may change quickly.
Google has already applied this approach to remote tech support scams, a common online threat in which attackers pretend to be support agents and pressure victims into calling phone numbers, installing software or paying for fake services. The company says it wants to expand the protection to more scam categories and eventually to Android devices.
Chrome on Android is also gaining AI-powered notification warnings. Malicious sites often persuade users to allow notifications and then flood them with misleading alerts. Google says Chrome can warn users when an on-device machine learning model flags a notification as suspicious, giving them the option to unsubscribe or view the blocked content.
The strategy reflects a shift in browser safety. Traditional defenses rely heavily on lists of known bad sites or files. Those systems remain important, but AI can help identify suspicious behavior earlier, before a scam campaign becomes widely reported.
For users, the feature reinforces the value of enabling stronger protection settings and keeping Chrome updated. For scammers, it raises the cost of constantly changing pages and messages to evade detection.