---
title: "Google’s AI Search Caught Pushing Users to Download Malware"
description: "Google's AI-integrated Search feature, Search Generative Experience (SGE), is leading platform users straight to malware-laden spam sites."
date: "2024-03-25"
modified: "2024-03-25"
authors:
  - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré"
    job_title: "Senior Staff Writer"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-ai-search-spam-malware"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
  - "Google"
tags:
  - "ai"
  - "ai search"
  - "Google"
  - "the digest"
---

# Google’s AI Search Caught Pushing Users to Download Malware

![Google's AI-integrated Search feature, Search Generative Experience (SGE), is leading platform users straight to malware-laden spam sites.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/google-ai-search-spam-malware.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Getty / Futurism\</em\>*

## Click Here!

Google's AI-integrated Search feature is leading platform users straight to malware-laden spam sites*.*

[Per *BleepingComputer*](<https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/googles-new-ai-search-results-promotes-sites-pushing-malware-scams/#google_vignette>), the issue was first caught by search engine optimization (SEO) expert Lily Ray, who [took to X-formerly-Twitter last week](<https://twitter.com/lilyraynyc/status/1771217301863289140>) to show that Google's AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE) — which churns up web content and regurgitates it into paraphrased snippets — had returned numerous spam pages in response to the query "pitbull puppy for sale craigslist."

"OH GOOD," Ray tweeted, along with a screenshot. "SGE WILL EVEN RECOMMEND THE SPAM SITES AS PART OF THE ANSWER."

That SGE isn't yet able to [reliably distinguish useful search results](<https://futurism.com/google-sge-false-ai-generated-info>) from full-on SEO spam, especially considering [Google's recent and wide-ranging spam crackdown](<https://futurism.com/google-cracking-down-ai>), is issue enough on its own. Unfortunately for Google, though, this particular SGE error only got worse from there.

When the folks at *BleepingComputer* visited the AI-recommended spam sites themselves, they were met with a barrage of scammy fake captcha and YouTube pages designed to trick visitors into subscribing to spammy browser notifications that flood their computers with unwanted advertisements — some of which sought personal information from users — and even browser extensions that hijack search queries.

In other words, Google's SGE led *Bl**eepingComputer* directly to fraudulent malware.

https://twitter.com/lilyraynyc/status/1771217301863289140

## Fresh Paint

Google, for its part, told *BleepingComputer* that it has "taken action under our policies to remove the examples shared, which were showing up for uncommon queries." The company also told *BleepingComputer* that it utilizes "anti-spam protections to safeguard SGE." Additionally, a Google spokesperson told *Futurism* that this was an instance where the SGE user had to actually click SGE's "generate" button to get these results, meaning that the spammy answers didn't show up automatically.

To be fair, spam and malware are unfortunate facts of the web, and searchers make the mistake of clicking on sneaky links like this all the time.

But as *BleepingComputer* points out, the *integration* of these links into convincingly paraphrased SGE snippets lends an added layer of legitimacy to the harmful content. The spam sites that showed up in Ray and *BleepingComputer*'s searches each had sketchy-looking URLs that your average searcher might have avoided. When rehashed by SGE, though, the malware-packed links got new coats of paint.

Spam is nothing new. But SGE is — and as this incident reveals, we can likely expect many of today's search woes to persist in a new, AI-organized search landscape.

*Updated with a statement from Google.*

**More on Google SGE:** [*Google's Search AI Says Slavery Was Good, Actually*](<https://futurism.com/google-search-ai-slavery>)

## Author
At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride."

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/mharrisondupre.bsky.social>)