British police have warned that advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology is increasingly being exploited by criminals to target victims in innovative and dangerous ways.
These warnings were made by Alex Murray, head of the British police's artificial intelligence department, during a conference of the National Police Chiefs' Council in London, according to the Guardian newspaper.
Murray explained that the ease of access to AI tools and their rapid development made them an attractive option for criminals.
He pointed out that this technology is widely used in financial crimes, such as the use of "deepfake" technology to carry out massive fraud operations.

One notable example was the targeting of an employee of a multinational company, who was persuaded to transfer a huge sum of £20.5 million using a fake video showing the company’s CFO. Similar cases have been reported in several countries, including the first deepfake scam targeting a British energy company in 2019.
Child exploitation and sexual extortion
Murray revealed that AI is also being used to produce images and videos of child abuse, which is one of the most widespread criminal activities.
He stressed that all such materials, whether digital or real, are illegal and are strongly condemned. Last month, a British man was sentenced to 18 years in prison after providing a paid service to child sexual exploitation networks via artificial intelligence.
Deepfake technology is also used in “sextortion,” where images posted on social media platforms are manipulated to blackmail victims. Hackers also exploit artificial intelligence to discover software vulnerabilities and carry out more sophisticated cyber attacks.
On the other hand, Jonathan Hall, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, warned of the dangers of using “chatbots” to incite terrorist crimes. He explained that this technology could be used to produce terrorist propaganda or plan attacks, which reinforces the need for international cooperation to confront these challenges.

Murray expressed his concern that the criminal uses of artificial intelligence will witness a significant increase in the coming years, calling on the relevant authorities to move quickly to keep pace with this technological development.
He continued: “We have to move quickly to be able to address these threats, otherwise we will see significant increases in all types of crimes by 2029.”
Experts stressed the importance of establishing strict laws to confront the exploitation of artificial intelligence in crimes, in addition to enhancing cooperation between governments and the technology sector to develop effective defensive tools.