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- Microsoft flags Perplexity-branded malware
Microsoft flags Perplexity-branded malware
Plus: NVIDIA and Palantir target agency AI
Rimsha Bhardwaj, Hasan Toor & Ihtesham Haider
June 30, 2026
In partnership with
Hello, Prohuman
Today, we will talk about these stories:
Fake AI extension hijacks browser search
Palantir puts open AI inside secure systems
Ford brings back the experts
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The fake AI extension watched the address bar
Image Credits: Microsoft
A fake Perplexity AI extension sent browser searches through an attacker-controlled domain.
The trick was quiet. Microsoft said the Chromium extension used Manifest Version 3, the domain perplexity-ai.online, and the extension ID flkebkiofojicogddingbdmcmkpbplcd. It also routed live search suggestions through that domain, which means typed characters could be captured before a user even pressed Enter.
The AI branding matters because it lowers suspicion at the exact moment users are installing something with broad browser access. The extension did not need to look scary; it only needed to look useful.
This is the kind of threat security teams will see more often as AI tools become normal office objects, like a browser tab left open after lunch. The risk is basic and serious: trusted branding can make permission creep feel harmless.
Who checks the tool before it checks everything else?
Palantir’s government AI pitch gets more practical
Image Credits: NVIDIA
Palantir is putting NVIDIA’s open Nemotron models inside air-gapped systems for U.S. agencies.
The pitch is control. Agencies can run customized models on their own infrastructure, train them on their own data, and keep ownership of the resulting weights. Palantir’s AIP, Foundry, Ontology, and Apollo handle authorization, isolation, deployment, and audit trails around those models.
This is a serious answer to a real government problem, because many agencies cannot send sensitive workflows to outside cloud systems. The useful part is less about open source ideology and more about keeping data, model behavior, and review logs inside the same secured room.
The U.S. government has about 3 million civilian employees, so even narrow AI tools could affect a lot of daily operations. Expect more vendors to sell AI as infrastructure that agencies can inspect, fence off, and keep close.
Can open models stay open once they move behind locked doors?
Ford needed the inspectors back
Image Credits: Ford
Ford brought back 300 veteran inspectors after its AI quality checks missed too much.
The company had rolled out 900 AI-powered cameras in plants and told investors it was deploying AI across its industrial system. The line exposed it.
Ford is learning that inspection depends on small details, like the sound of a fit, a rushed hand motion, or a part that feels slightly off. That part matters.
That knowledge lives in people before it becomes training data, and Ford let too much of it leave with senior workers. Now those workers are back beside the machines, training systems and mentoring younger staff under the plant lights.
Other manufacturers will notice, especially teams replacing senior staff before their judgment has been recorded or taught.
Who trains the system when the experts are gone?
Prohuman team
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