Europol Warns That Advances in AI Are Transforming Organised Crime
Europol cautioned on Tuesday that artificial intelligence is propelling organised crime, ranging from the creation of child sexual abuse images to laundering money through cryptocurrency, while upcoming breakthroughs like quantum computing threaten to aggravate the situation further.
In a newly issued report describing the dangers posed by organised crime, the European law enforcement agency stated that offenders are capitalising on AI as a ‘catalyst’ to expedite their illicit operations.
Rapid improvements in technology—particularly in AI—are changing how crimes are set up, carried out, and concealed, Europol noted in its detailed 80-page ‘threat assessment’ study. These changes are increasing the risk presented by organised crime, generating an unprecedented challenge for the security of the EU and its member states.
Criminals use AI and other tools for a broad array of illegal endeavours—from drug and human trafficking to cybercrime and identity fraud. Generative AI allows criminal networks to reach victims worldwide in multiple languages and even produce child sexual abuse content. Explicit photos of adults might be altered to appear younger, and some applications can ‘nudify’ images that were originally non-explicit.
Europol pointed out that the same qualities making AI revolutionary—ease of access, adaptability, and complexity—also make it alluring for criminal misuse. Technology similarly complicates efforts to reclaim unlawful earnings, with the recovery of profits from crime stuck at around two percent due to the rising criminal exploitation of digital assets. Criminal organisations are deploying cryptocurrency to disguise and transfer funds, hindering attempts to locate and seize any proceeds. The use of cryptocurrency in criminal contexts has now spread beyond cyberattacks, encompassing more conventional offences like drug trafficking and migrant smuggling.
As technology advances, the upward trend in criminal activities is likely to intensify. Europol referenced fast-moving developments in quantum computing, the metaverse, 6G, unmanned systems, and brain-computer interfaces, indicating that the high degree of anonymity, speed, and intricacy displayed by criminal groups will likely grow further in the near term. In particular, quantum computing may permit criminals to break current encryption protocols with ease.
Lastly, the report underscored the grim possibility of criminal organisations wholly masterminded by AI. The introduction of fully autonomous AI could shape a new period in organised crime, where networks are entirely operated by artificial intelligence.