It’s the unknown crime that we can’t yet imagine that we should be worried about!
— Jim Carroll
The opportunity
Automate repetitive tasks, improve decision-making accuracy, identify anomalies and suspicious activities more effectively, and free up human capital for more complex and creative endeavors.
From “Daily Inspiration: Policing & AI - “It’s the unknown crime that we can’t yet imagine that we should be worried about!”” (November 2024)
But what about the future? From a crime perspective, it’s pretty bleak. There is no doubt that there will be a significant number of AI-driven crimes, wherein criminals will create deepfakes for purposes of extortion, algorithms that can hack into computer systems to commit financial crimes, or algorithms that can analyze and manipulate financial data to influence or cripple financial markets. And there is absolutely no doubt that there will be an increase in AI-related cybercrime. As more and more aspects of our lives move online, we’ll see cyber fraud, hacking, data theft, AI-managed identity theft, and much more. One estimate suggests that by 2033, 80% of all crimes will be cybercrimes. The big problem here? Perpetrators are often hidden behind anonymity and evidence is largely digital, and AI will only accelerate that opportunity.
Then there is the crazy Matrix-like science fiction crime of the future that will involve various aspects of AI - the hijacking for terrorist purposes of autonomous vehicles or drones, the hacking of brain-to-computer interface technology, or digital currency theft (which is already occurring.) Remember my favorite phrase that starts ” Companies that do not yet exist will build products not yet conceived… ..?” The logical extension of that is that ” nefarious elements will commit crimes not yet imagined using concepts not yet in existence with tools not yet in existence ,” or something like that.
We also need to consider genetic data and crime - with genetic data increasingly stored online and used for medical, legal, and employment purposes, the RCMP could find itself managing complex crime cases involving the theft or misuse of this sensitive information. They may need to protect against bio-crimes that manipulate or weaponize genetic data, as well as address crimes where unauthorized access to genetic profiles leads to discrimination or exploitation.
From “Keynote: Verisk Insurance Fraud Management Summit - “The End of Reality” - Houston, Texas” (March 2024)
The insurance industry has long adapted to AI as a powerful analytical tool, particularly with fraud detection. Jim took them into the future of insurance fraud, challenging them to think about the new insurance risk issues that emerge with ’ the end of reality .’
From “Daily Inspiration: 24 Strategies for 2024 #8 - “Basically, be boring”” (December 2023)
Running the business better? Right now, there are a lot of strategic opportunities with AI, such as building custom AI-based support bots to answer customer service questions or let them search product manuals; streamlining day-to-day workflow to shave costs and introduce efficiency, or implementing a private corporate ChatGPT-like system for internal knowledge access. There are many other such activities already in place in many industries; for example, in the insurance industry, there is a lot of AI-based fraud detection happening.
Growing the business? This involves the analytical and data-mining capabilities of AI, with such things as insight into sales trends and customer activities and sentiments. To a degree, these strategic opportunities have been available to us for quite some time in the guise of ‘big data,’ and really won’t go anywhere unless you’ve got easy access to the data in the first place. For many organizations, that is a project in and of itself.
The potentially exciting stuff comes with transforming the business - how can we embed AI in an existing product to redefine its function, purpose, role, and value? I spoke about that yesterday in the context of the idea of a ’ smart battery’.’ Basically, a device that is fundamentally changed by giving information about its operation, health, performance, and more - exactly like my Tesla does. This can include building in ‘real-time prognostic diagnostics’ - that’s a mouthful, but it involves building into a product the AI-based technology that will predict when it is going to break down, thereby giving the product more overall value. It might involve embedding AI into a personal medical device to let it take on a new and exciting role in personal healthcare. All of which can be pretty exciting to explore, but is far more complex to implement. (Implementation = boring!)
Read the full pieces on jimcarroll.com:
Daily Inspiration: Policing & AI - “It’s the unknown crime that we can’t yet imagine that we should be worried about!”
Keynote: Verisk Insurance Fraud Management Summit - “The End of Reality” - Houston, Texas
Daily Inspiration: 24 Strategies for 2024 #8 - “Basically, be boring”