Google has filed a lawsuit aimed at dismantling the infrastructure behind what it describes as a massive cybercrime operation powered by artificial intelligence. The tech giant announced on Friday that it is taking legal action against an alleged Chinese cybercrime network known as Outsider Enterprise. According to Google, this group uses AI to carry out campaigns that send scam text messages impersonating Google and other well-known brands, with the goal of stealing passwords and credit card numbers.

The operation has financially victimized "hundreds of thousands of people," with losses "estimated in the millions," Google stated. Over a two-week period, the group deployed 9,000 fake websites, 1 million fraudulent web domains, and sent 2.5 million texts targeting Android users. The company noted that "55,000 spam texts were flagged by Android users in just two weeks this past May - that’s more than two text spam complaints a minute."

Google says it is using "AI-powered tools to fight AI-powered scams," which allow the company to detect fraudulent activity and alert users to suspicious calls and text messages. These efforts have led to the interception of more than 10 billion scam messages each month. The company also reported that it has been working with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to block these scam texts and is coordinating with the FBI, which is taking unspecified law enforcement actions. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.