Google Chrome has updated the existing “Enhanced protection” feature with AI to offer “real-time” protection against dangerous websites, downloads and extensions.
As spotted by Leo on X, the update has been rolled out to Chrome’s stable channel on all platforms after three months of testing in Canary.
Enhanced protection, which is part of the Safe browsing feature, isn’t new and has been around for years, but it’s now being updated to use AI.
Previously, Google said Chrome used “proactive protection” to protect users from malicious or suspicious websites, but the terminology has been updated to reflect AI integration.
It’s unclear how the feature is different from the older ‘non-AI’ version, but Google could be using AI to understand the pattern in real-time and warn users about potentially harmful sites, even those that Google hasn’t previously identified.
According to Google, AI protection also performs an in-depth scan for suspicious downloads.
However, it warns that the browsing data is sent to Google when Enhanced protection is actively used.
Enhanced protection with AI is turned off by default, but you can turn it on from Settings > Security on Windows, Android and iOS.