AI and the Future of Anti-Corruption Law

This book explores the uncharted intersections of autonomous AI agents, blockchain-based systems, and international governance, uncovering how these emerging tools may both threaten and enhance integrity in the world’s institutions. Artificial intelligence and decentralised technologies are beginning to reshape how corruption operates, and how it can be controlled, on a global scale. Rather than rehashing familiar corruption case studies, the book takes a future-oriented approach, introducing readers to provocative scenarios. These include AI “synthetic agents” that bribe or even act as public officials, smart contract platforms that facilitate illicit payoffs without human intermediaries, algorithmic lobbying by AI systems influencing policy, and swarm-based organisations making leaderless decisions. Through accessible explanations and cutting-edge examples, the book demonstrates how these under-researched phenomena could disrupt current anti-corruption measures and erode accountability across borders. The book also highlights opportunities: how the same technologies might be harnessed to bolster transparency and trust. Bridging technology, law, and ethics, it demystifies complex concepts, and ultimately offers bold new frameworks for global governance in the AI era, frameworks which are designed to curb novel corruption risks while adapting institutions for a decentralised, autonomous future. The book will be of interest to researchers in the field of artificial intelligence, global governance, criminal law and anti-corruption.