Artificial Intelligence And Cybercrime: Addressing Liability In Autonomous Cyber Attacks
- IJLLR Journal
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
Rojakhan Rahemankhan Pathan, S.P College of Law
ABSTRACT
This research paper critically evaluates the structural, procedural, and doctrinal legal challenges emerging from the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into criminal cyber operations, focusing specifically on autonomous cyber attacks. As AI systems transcend automated scripting to execute adaptive, self-modifying, and target-selective intrusions without real-time human control, traditional penal frameworks are fundamentally disrupted. This paper explores the “responsibility gap” created by autonomous execution and analyzes the friction it introduces to classical concepts of Actus Reus and Mens Rea under Indian criminal jurisprudence, specifically within the statutory provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the newly enacted Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023. By conducting a comparative assessment across the evolutionary regulatory paradigms of India, the European Union, and the United States, the study underscores severe procedural and enforcement deficiencies inside domestic cyber forensics architectures. The analysis demonstrates that relying exclusively on traditional individual attribution methodologies is highly ineffective for addressing algorithmically opaque (“black box”) criminal acts. Ultimately, the paper recommends targeted legislative modifications, including the codification of developer liability, the implementation of “Explainable AI” (XAI) standards, and enhanced cross-border electronic evidence preservation to address transborder legal arbitrage.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Cybercrime, Autonomous Cyber Attacks, Criminal Liability, Mens Rea, Information Technology Act, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
