TLDR: AI-powered crime is on the rise, with cybercriminals leveraging advanced technologies to launch sophisticated attacks. From AI-generated phishing scams to ransomware targeting supply chains, the potential for AI to amplify criminal activities poses significant challenges for law enforcement and cybersecurity experts.
The Rise of AI-Powered Crime: A New Frontier in Criminal Activity
As we enter 2025, the landscape of criminal activity is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. Once confined to the realm of science fiction, AI-powered crime has become a stark reality, presenting unprecedented challenges for law enforcement agencies and cybersecurity experts worldwide.
The Current State of AI Crime
Recent incidents have highlighted the growing sophistication of AI-enabled criminal activities. In a chilling example from late 2021, Jaswant Singh Chail used ChatGPT and a generative AI chatbot called Replika to plan an attack on Windsor Castle, intending to assassinate the Queen1. This case underscores the potential for AI to be exploited in planning violent acts, raising concerns about the role of emotional AI in influencing vulnerable individuals.
Cybercriminals are also leveraging AI to enhance their attacks. The Internet Watch Foundation reported over 20,000 AI-generated images on a single dark web forum in October 2023, with more than 3,000 related to child sexual abuse1. This alarming trend demonstrates how AI is being used to create and distribute illegal content at an unprecedented scale.
The Evolution of Cyber Threats
As we move further into 2025, experts predict a sharp rise in AI-driven cyber attacks. Ransomware, already a significant threat, is expected to become even more sophisticated. AI and automation will enable cybercriminals to launch faster, more precise attacks that can rapidly spread across networks2. The targeting of supply chains is particularly concerning, with predictions of two or three large-scale ransomware incidents affecting entire industries in the coming years.
Phishing attacks are also evolving, with AI enabling the creation of highly convincing and personalised scams. These next-generation phishing attempts will leverage AI’s ability to learn from real-time data, adapting to evade detection systems2. This democratisation of cybercrime means that even smaller criminal groups can now run large-scale operations without advanced technical expertise.
The Social Media Battleground
Social media platforms have become a prime target for cybercriminals, with the combination of social media and generative AI enabling sophisticated impersonation attacks. By 2025, it’s expected that deepfakes and AI-driven bots will be commonly used to mimic the behaviour, appearance, and voice of individuals, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between real and artificial interactions2.
Gil Friedrich, VP of Email Security at Check Point, warns, “By 2025, we expect a sharp rise in cyber criminals exploiting social media, particularly using AI to launch targeted impersonation attacks. Deepfake already intervenes with political processes and will expand to the business environment”2.
The Rise of AI-Generated Malware
Perhaps one of the most concerning developments is the emergence of AI-generated malware. Attackers are expected to leverage advanced AI code generation tools to create sophisticated and highly targeted cyber threats from a single prompt2. This development could dramatically lower the barrier to entry for malicious actors, making the digital world significantly less secure.
The Center for AI Crime and Future Challenges
As these threats evolve, organisations like the Center for AI Crime are working to understand and combat AI-powered criminal activities. Their research focuses on developing strategies to detect and mitigate AI-enabled crimes, as well as exploring the ethical implications of using AI in law enforcement.
The potential for malicious AI agents to outsmart humans remains a significant concern. As multi-modal AI systems gain the ability to integrate text, images, voice, and sophisticated coding, they could be used to streamline and automate entire attack chains3. This hands-off approach could enable less skilled threat actors to launch advanced attacks with minimal human intervention, posing significant challenges for cybersecurity teams of all sizes.
As we navigate this new frontier of AI-powered crime, it’s clear that the battle between cybercriminals and security experts will continue to intensify. The key to staying ahead lies in adapting security tools, training employees in a “zero trust” environment, and fostering collaboration between law enforcement, technology companies, and cybersecurity experts to develop robust defences against these evolving threats.
References
- Verdict. (2024, November 21). How AI creates opportunities for criminal behaviour. https://www.verdict.co.uk/ai-aids-criminal-behaviour/
- Check Point Blog. (2024, October 28). 2025 Cyber Security Predictions – The Rise of AI-Driven Attacks, Quantum Threats, and Social Media Exploitation. https://blog.checkpoint.com/security/2025-cyber-security-predictions-the-rise-of-ai-driven-attacks-quantum-threats-and-social-media-exploitation/
- SC World. (2025, January 2). 2025 Forecast: AI to supercharge attacks, quantum threats grow. https://www.scworld.com/feature/cybersecurity-threats-continue-to-evolve-in-2025-driven-by-ai
- Emergency Services Times. (2024, September 27). How Artificial Intelligence use in policing is transforming law enforcement. https://emergencyservicestimes.com/2024/09/27/how-artificial-intelligence-use-in-policing-is-transforming-law-enforcement/
- NCSC.GOV.UK. The near-term impact of AI on the cyber threat. https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/report/impact-of-ai-on-cyber-threat
- Napier AI. (2024, December 18). Napier AI’s financial crime compliance predictions for 2025. https://www.napier.ai/post/predictions-financial-crime-compliance-2025