North Korean state-backed cybercriminals have been actively using Google’s Gemini AI to enhance their illicit operations, including researching potential targets and developing malicious code, according to a new report from the U.S. search giant.

At least nine Pyongyang-based threat actors have been observed leveraging the AI tool for various phases of their attack lifecycle, Google Threat Intelligence Group said in its “Adversarial Misuse of Generative AI” report published on Thursday. 

One of the major use cases for North Korean cybercriminals was research on organizations relevant to their interests, including the South Korean and U.S. militaries, companies across 11 sectors and