AI’s Dual Edge: Scams Surge as Economies Embrace the Token Era

The most striking signal of artificial intelligence’s dark side came last year from Washington, where the FBI recorded over $900 million in losses to AI-enabled scams – a stark figure that underscores how criminals are weaponising deepfakes and voice clones to impersonate loved ones and officials. The threat is not confined to the United States. In Jakarta, authorities are urging citizens to exercise extreme caution online, noting that digital payment transactions across Indonesia have surged to 14.82 billion, creating a vast attack surface for increasingly sophisticated fraud.

Yet the same technology is also powering a profound economic shift. In Brasília, analysts point to a McKinsey survey showing that the proportion of firms using AI has leapt from 20 percent in 2017 to 88 percent in 2025, heralding what some call a new ‘token era’ in which the defining resource is no longer oil or coal but the processing of language units. Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism has integrated AI into its digital ecosystem to reshape how global travellers discover the archipelago, betting that algorithms can build trust and narrative in a crowded online marketplace.

For those entering the workforce, the message from Silicon Valley is one of cautious optimism. Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently told graduates that AI should be viewed as a powerful equaliser, fundamentally altering the starting point for careers rather than eliminating opportunities. His reassurance contrasts with the broader anxiety over job displacement, but it reflects a growing belief that AI’s capacity to enhance personal productivity could offset the disruption it causes.

Governments, however, are far from unified on how to manage this transformation. Viewed from Buenos Aires, President Javier Milei’s approach is the outlier: he proposes minimal state intervention, trusting markets to resolve the challenges of the new technological revolution. This stands in sharp contrast to the strategic doctrines emerging from Washington, Beijing and Brussels, where AI is treated as a matter of national security, industrial competitiveness and technological sovereignty. The debate is no longer about more or less state, but about who controls the infrastructure underpinning tomorrow’s economy.

The convergence of these trends paints a picture of a technology moving simultaneously toward promise and peril. As AI scams grow more convincing and disproportionately target the young – with complaints from Americans under 20 rising by 74 percent in a single year – the need for robust governance and public literacy becomes acute. The race is on not only to harness AI for economic gain but to prevent its misuse from eroding trust in the very digital systems that are being so rapidly embraced.