The Morrison Government is protecting Australian borders and keeping local communities safe by redirecting proceeds of crime towards Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects.
Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews said $8.9 million in funding taken from criminals will be used to fund the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australi an Border Force (ABF) to better use AI to detect and prevent crime.
"The Morrison Government is turning the tables on criminals - directing their ill-gotten gains towards investments in new technologies and methods to further combat their illegal activities to keep drugs off our streets and protect our community," Minister Andrews said.
"This funding will develop the AFP's capability to harness AI to automatically classify distressing material, characterise criminal communications and behaviour including on the dark web, and rapidly process and interpret large amounts of data.
"It is important that we continue to harness emerging technologies to help our agencies stay ahead of criminal networks," Minister Andrews said.
The AI projects are funded through the Proceeds of Crime Confiscated Assets Account and will help monitor concealments at the border and improve community safety through:
$4.5 million for the joint ABF, Department of Home Affairs and Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment's AI enhanced Border Risk Identification project to improve the ABF's ability to detect attempts to smuggle drugs and weapons into Australia through the international mail system.
$4.4 million will expand and enhance the joint AFP and Monash University Artificial Intelligence for Law Enforcement and Community Safety Lab based in Clayton, Victoria.
Since 2013, the Coalition has provided funding of more than $209 million under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, to Commonwealth law enforcement agencies to support key crime prevention and law enforcement initiatives.
Under the Coalition Government, funding to the Australian Federal Police has also increased to over $1.7 billion. Only the Morrison Government can ensure strong support for our law enforcement agencies to keep Australians safe.
