The INTERPOL Innovation Centre serves as a global hub for advancing law enforcement capabilities through technology and research. It brings together experts from policing, academia, and industry to develop tools that address threats such as cybercrime, deepfakes, and AI-driven offenses. The Centre’s collaborative approach and cutting-edge resources help police forces worldwide keep pace with fast-evolving security challenges.

The Challenge

AI has transformed industries by boosting efficiency and analytical capabilities. However, criminals are also weaponizing AI to create synthetic identities, generate deepfakes, and deceive at scale, posing serious risks to global security.

The growing misuse of generative AI includes:

• Fabrication or theft of digital identities
• Use of deepfakes in fraud, extortion, and misinformation
• Creation of synthetic documents and audio to bypass detection

To address these threats, INTERPOL partnered with Sumsub to enhance law enforcement’s capacity to detect and respond to AI-facilitated crime. This initiative forms part of INTERPOL’s broader program on AI in digital forensics, aiming to provide knowledge, tools, and partnerships that empower police in the digital age.

Sumsub’s Identity Fraud Report 2025 revealed a 4x increase in global deepfake detection from 2023 to 2024, with deepfakes accounting for 7% of all fraud attempts.

Recognizing these trends, the INTERPOL Innovation Centre collaborated with the National Police Agency of Japan and the Japan Cybercrime Control Center (JC3) to launch the INTERPOL Conference on AI in Digital Forensics. Held under Project Synthwave, this initiative brought together global experts to assess the implications of AI for investigations, forensics, and policing.

Objectives of the Collaboration

The partnership with Sumsub aligns with INTERPOL’s strategic priorities and the AI conference agenda. It aims to:

• Strengthen law enforcement’s ability to detect synthetic media
• Prevent the misuse of AI in fraud, terrorism, and organized crime
• Shape global digital forensics standards
• Promote international collaboration
• Train officers to respond to AI-enabled threats

The Solution

This collaboration emphasizes capacity building, beginning with Project Synthwave in Singapore and continuing through 2026. Key activities include:

1. INTERPOL AI Forum Engagement

Sumsub participated in the INTERPOL AI Forum, co-hosted with the Naif Arab University for Security Sciences in Saudi Arabia. Discussions centered on AI’s role in:

• Counter-terrorism
• Disrupting organized crime

2. Contribution to INTERPOL Research

Sumsub contributed expertise to the 2024 INTERPOL report “Beyond Illusions: Unmasking the Threat of Synthetic Media for Law Enforcement”. The report highlighted:

• Advances in synthetic media
• Challenges in authenticating digital evidence
• Recommended forensic techniques

Sumsub also shared real-world examples of AI fraud and scalable verification approaches.

3. Training and Intelligence Sharing

Sumsub collaborated with INTERPOL on training content presented at the Digital Forensics Expert Group Meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland. Participants received training in:

• Digital identity forensics
• Deepfake recognition
• Biometric manipulation detection

Results

The partnership has already yielded the following outcomes:

• Raised global awareness among police leaders about synthetic media
• Shared proprietary fraud statistics across industries
• Influenced forensic standards via INTERPOL forums and reports
• Developed foundational training materials for AI programs
• Fostered collaboration between law enforcement, academia, and private sector experts

Although operational deployment is planned for future phases, these early efforts lay the groundwork for global resilience against AI-driven threats.

The initiative also uncovered challenges, including:

• Education Gaps: Many agencies are unfamiliar with synthetic media’s forensic challenges
• Legal Uncertainty: Deepfake detection needs to evolve with evidence and privacy laws
• Infrastructure Gaps: Not all countries can immediately adopt AI verification systems

Future Plans

This collaboration represents a key milestone in equipping global law enforcement with the tools to counter AI threats. By investing in knowledge sharing, research, and training, INTERPOL and Sumsub are helping secure the future of digital evidence and public trust. As deepfake technology advances, the foundation laid through this initiative will remain crucial to global policing.