Google, GovTech developing first-of-its-kind AI model to flag scams in real time for Android users

SINGAPORE - Google DeepMind and the Singapore government are developing a first-of-its-kind on-device scam detection model that alerts Android users in real-time about potential scam attempts.

The artificial intelligence (AI) model promises to protect users from known scams without allowing any personal data to leave their devices.

The collaboration with the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) was announced on Oct 14 on the sidelines of the Singapore International Cyber Week.

“Fighting scams shouldn’t mean sacrificing personal privacy. Working with Google DeepMind, we’re bringing advanced AI protection directly onto citizens’ devices,” said Mark Chen, director of trust and safety at GovTech.

“This allows us to catch highly targeted, local scam attempts in real time while keeping personal communications private.”

Under the hood, the safety system is also trained to understand local context. Specifically, the AI model analyses text exchanges on messaging apps such as Whatsapp and Telegram in real time, and is fine-tuned specifically to detect local scam patterns including the impersonation of government officials and banks.

Its release date has not been disclosed. It is also not known if the model will be a default feature in the Android operating system.

The model will also be continuously trained on emerging scam tactics to ensure that it can accurately distinguish between harmless chatter and manipulation tactics used in scams, said Google in a statement on Oct 14.

It added that the AI analyses conversations in messaging apps directly on the user’s device instead of sending data to external cloud servers, which allows for quicker alerts and ensures that data remains private.

As part of the initial development process, the model was trained on anonymised datasets from scam reports and intelligence feeds, and stress-tested against synthetic conversations that were made to reflect local speech patterns.

“When deployed, the model will only be able to access on-device conversations with the user’s consent,” said Google DeepMind in a blogpost on Oct 14.

“As the model runs entirely on-device, neither the Singapore Government nor Google will be able to access users’ conversations through its deployment,” said the blog’s authors JJ Geewax and Miguel de Andrés.

They are Google DeepMind Applied AI director and group product manager, respectively.

“The project demonstrates how AI can help counter criminality without compromising safety or privacy. It also shows how governments and model providers can work together to build tech for public good,” said both authors, adding that generic AI models often struggle to identify scam tactics that are specific to Singapore.

“With this lightweight, on-device model, we’ve proven the ability for local, real-time scam detection while ensuring chat interactions remain secure. We look forward to sharing more soon on our collaboration with the Singapore government, as well as exploring the potential for similar technology to be deployed in other countries.”

A real-time warning will be triggered on the user’s device when the AI model detects manipulative conversational patterns. A message displayed will caution users to pause before sharing any sensitive information or funds.

Singapore has lost more than $4 billion to scams since 2019. In the first six months of 2026, $410.6 million were lost to scammers. E-commerce, phishing, investment, job, and government official impersonation scams were the most common scam types.

On Oct 14, Google also announced that it will be giving the government access to its most advanced AI cybersecurity tools, which will help cyber defenders find, verify, and fix vulnerabilities in minutes.

“By proactively patching weaknesses ahead of time, the program aims to protect essential systems and services from operational disruption and cybersecurity threats,” said Google.

This partnership aligns with the government’s continued call for cyber defenders to use AI to fight threats posed by the same technology.

Earlier in July, ChatGPT maker OpenAI disclosed that its AI agents had escaped its testing environment and breached AI software repository Hugging Face to complete a task that it was given.

A flurry of other reports of similar incidents followed, including the breach of a Australian healthcare database by a rogue OpenAI bot in June, which was later revealed by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in September.