ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY: PROSECUTING AI-GENERATED CRIMES AND AUTONOMOUS SURVEILLANCE

The accelerating integration of artificial intelligence into everyday life has generated profound
legal challenges that existing criminal law frameworks are ill-equipped to address. This paper
examines the doctrinal and normative gaps that emerge when AI systems autonomously
generate crimes or are deployed as instruments of surveillance. By interrogating foundational
principles of criminal liability — namely, mens rea, actus reus, and the principle of individual
accountability — the paper demonstrates that traditional attribution models falter when applied
to autonomous and semi-autonomous AI actors. Drawing on comparative analysis of Indian,
European Union, and common law jurisprudence, alongside emerging regulatory frameworks
such as the EU AI Act 2024, this paper proposes a multi-layered liability model that distributes
criminal responsibility across developers, deployers, and, where appropriate, corporate entities.
The paper further interrogates the legality of autonomous surveillance technologies, evaluating
their compatibility with constitutional guarantees of privacy, due process, and the right against
self-incrimination. It is argued that the absence of a dedicated AI criminal liability statute in
India represents a critical legislative lacuna that demands urgent attention. The paper concludes
by advocating for an internationally harmonised regulatory architecture grounded in
proportionality, transparency, and the irreducible primacy of human oversight in AI-assisted
criminal justice.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Criminal Liability, Autonomous Surveillance, Mens Rea, AI
Regulation, Indian Law, EU AI Act, Machine Learning, Algorithmic Accountability.