Policy brief: AI-enabled future crime

Download the full briefing from the Dawes Centre website

This study identified 20 applications of AI and related technologies which could be used for crime now or in the future.

Future crimes were ranked as either low, medium or high concern in relation to the harm they could cause, the criminal profit (achieving a financial return, terror, harm or reputational goal), the achievability of the crime and its difficulty to defeat.

Six crimes were identified as most concerning: audio and video impersonation, driverless vehicles as weapons, tailored phishing, disrupting AI-controlled systems, large-scale blackmail and AI-authored fake news.

Funder & Key Contributors

This work was carried out by the Dawes Centre for Future Crime at UCL. This briefing was produced in partnership with Florence Greatrix at UCL STEaPP’s Policy Impact Unit. The research was funded by the Dawes Centre for Future Crime at UCL.

Lead researchers

Professor Lewis Griffin, Dr Matthew Caldwell (Department of Computer Science), Professor Shane Johnson (Department of Security and Crime Science)

Output type

Policy briefing 

PIU Lead 

Florence Greatrix