Tech-driven crime on the rise in Bangladesh with increased AI users

Dhaka, June 7 (IANS) Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven criminal tendencies are witnessing an alarming surge in Bangladesh, in parallel to the number of AI users expanding at an exponential rate, said a report on Sunday. There is an urgent need to introduce a comprehensive national and global ‘AI Policy’ or regulatory framework to curb these negative impacts and prevent institutional misuse, as per experts, the Pressenza International Press Agency reported. "According to a harrowing statistic from the local fact-checking organisation ‘Rumor Scanner’, a total of 68 severe rumours and items of misinformation targeted 29 prominent women in the country’s showbiz industry in 2025. Most alarming is the fact that out of these 68 smear campaigns, 50 video contents explicitly utilised advanced AI technology," the report noted. Many television studios and social media platforms are using AI to generate content, and these ‘Deepfakes’ become incredibly difficult for regular people to distinguish from the truth. Using AI for image creation has become exceptionally popular among the youth, and conversational chatbots such as Copilot, Midjourney, DALL-E 3, Sora 2, Runway Gen 4.5, and Google Veo 3.0 are also seeing growing adoption in the country. “Experts argue that this unregulated proliferation of AI not only tarnishes individual dignity but could also inflict severe long-term damage on the country’s broader education system, job market, and cinema industry,” said the report. Tech analysts want immediate formulation of strict AI regulations, but they also strongly caution against allowing such laws to be weaponised to suppress dissent and criticism. "According to experts, a clear distinction must be made in the legislation to separately define criticism, misinformation, deliberate disinformation, hate speech, satire, and political sarcasm. If the law remains ambiguous, a ‘rumour prevention law’ runs the high risk of swiftly mutating into a 'criticism-suppression law'," noted the report. The report also argued for ensuring the local accountability of social media conglomerates (such as Facebook, TikTok, and X) and asked for enhancing transparency and local language moderation to combat fake accounts, bot networks, unlabelled AI videos, and communal content. --IANS ksk/vd