Google says that AI powers Chrome's enhanced protection mode

Google updated the description of its enhanced protection mode on Chrome to say that this protection comes from AI.

A spot by a trusted browser enthusiast @Leopeva64 on X shows that Google updates the feature’s description on the Settings page. It now says, “Real-time, AI-powered protection against dangerous sites, downloads, and extensions that’s based on your browsing data getting set to Google.”

Here’s what it looks like, courtesy of the spotter.

It—for sure—does sound like a subtle change on Chrome Canary, the browser’s experimental channel, but oftentimes, a description change may hint at something bigger.

Google previously updated the disclaimer of Chrome’s Incognito mode amid a $5 billion settlement for users’ tracking. That was only a paragraph change, but it had a backstory of a billion-dollar lawsuit that Google was trying to navigate through.

When it’s on, Chrome’s enhanced protection mode warns you about previously unknown dangerous sites, performs in-depth scans for suspicious downloads, and more. It does so without killing the browser’s speed.

But, unlike the standard protection, activating this may also send URLs and samples of activity data to Google for security checks—which, let’s be real, Google doesn’t exactly have the best track record at.