Google DeepMind and Singapore build an on-device scam detector on Gemma

Google DeepMind and GovTech Singapore fine-tuned a small Gemma model to spot scams in chat conversations, running entirely on the phone. It works in two steps: a lightweight classifier screens incoming messages, then the Gemma model reads more of the conversation to confirm a scam or dismiss a false alarm, and shows a warning before the user shares money or details. Training used anonymised data from scam reports and intelligence feeds, with no personal data, inside a government-managed cloud environment. Scams make up over half of Singapore's reported crimes, with more than S$4 billion lost since 2019. It is not in apps yet: rollout will be phased, needs user consent, and Google says neither it nor the government can read the chats. No accuracy figures were published.