THE International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) says it has identified 126 terrorism suspects from visual content published by jihadist groups with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI).
News Point Nigeria reports that the “first-of-its-kind” operation, codenamed “Operation Shams II,” involved 28 specialised officers and experts from 11 countries.
The participating countries are Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Tajikistan, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan.
In a statement published on its website on Friday, Interpol said officers extracted 108,076 facial images from visual content published by jihadist groups during the operation.
According to the organisation, the extracted images were narrowed down to 6,362 unique facial images for processing through its facial recognition system.
Additional images were obtained from officers at Interpol’s National Central Bureau in Baghdad, Iraq.
The organisation said “programmed AI agents and advanced AI-generated scripts were used to automate parts of the data collection and investigative processes, enabling the system to deduplicate and quality-check the images.”
Interpol said 126 foreign terrorist fighters were identified from the processed images.
“These matches will enrich existing intelligence on suspects, including potential locations and social networks,” Interpol said.
“The data is now being integrated into INTERPOL’s databases, reinforcing global efforts to detect, track and disrupt terrorist movements worldwide.
“Investigative leads identified during the operation are already being used to support judicial procedures in participating countries, including one case targeting two currently detained suspected foreign terrorist fighters.
“With thousands more images yet to be processed, further comparisons are ongoing and may identify additional leads.”
Interpol said the AI-generated output was subjected to review and verification by trained officers and analysts.
The organisation also said it deployed “cutting edge” cryptocurrency tools during the operation to trace illicit funding.
It added that three requests were sent to a virtual asset service provider for the disclosure of customer data.
“Beyond investigative activities, participating countries also met with representatives of the online gaming industry to address youth radicalisation in online environments,” Interpol said.
“The engagement strengthened cross-sector cooperation and identified opportunities to improve information sharing.”