Microsoft introduced its Bing Chat AI search assistant in February and a month later began serving ads alongside it to help cover costs.
However, some of those adverts served by Microsoft’s own ad platform have turned out to be malicious. Security outfit Malwarebytes said on Thursday it has identified malvertising – harmful ads – distributed via Bing Chat conversations.
“Ads can be inserted into a Bing Chat conversation in various ways,” said Jérôme Segura, director of threat intelligence, in a write-up. “One of those is when a user hovers over a link and an ad is displayed first before the organic result.”
