Blackdot brings AI automation to OSINT investigations

• Cambridge firm launches Videris Automate using AI agents for economic crime investigations
• Platform targets fraud, money laundering cases while keeping human investigators in control
• AI hallucination risks addressed through trusted data sources and output verification

Financial crime investigators just got their own AI sidekick, and it promises to be less prone to watching cat videos than human assistants. Blackdot's new automated investigation platform represents a fascinating collision between cutting-edge AI and the decidedly unglamorous world of following money trails and sanctions violations. The company is essentially betting that large language models can sift through corporate registries and dark web content faster than caffeinated investigators armed with spreadsheets.

The timing couldn't be more crucial, as criminals are increasingly using AI to commit economic crimes, creating an arms race between digital detectives and digital delinquents. Banks and government agencies are drowning in data from social media, sanction lists, and politically exposed person databases, making manual investigation about as efficient as counting grains of sand on a beach. Blackdot's approach of keeping humans in the loop while automating the tedious bits suggests they understand that even the smartest AI still needs adult supervision when dealing with evidence that could send someone to prison.

The real test will be whether AI can maintain the rigorous standards required for criminal investigations while actually speeding things up. Economic crime costs the UK billions annually, and if AI can help investigators catch more bad actors without compromising accuracy, it could reshape how financial institutions and law enforcement tackle everything from sanctions evasion to money laundering. The challenge lies in ensuring that AI-generated evidence holds up in court, where judges are notoriously skeptical of testimony from algorithms that can't be cross-examined.