The U.S. Treasury Department announced a significant breakthrough in its fight against financial fraud, revealing that artificial intelligence has helped recover a staggering $4 billion in “fraud and improper payments” during the 2024 fiscal year.
The figure represents a substantial increase from the previous year, when AI-powered systems recovered $652.7 million in fraudulent funds, according to the Treasury Department’s press release.
The Treasury Department began quietly implementing machine learning algorithms in late 2022, leveraging their ability to analyze vast datasets and identify patterns that human analysts might miss, as Cointelegraph reported.
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo stated in the Treasury’s press release that the department is committed to protecting taxpayer dollars, and added:
Treasury takes seriously our responsibility to serve as effective stewards of taxpayer money. Helping ensure that agencies pay the right person, in the right amount, at the right time is central to our efforts,
The Treasury Department currently handles over 1.4 billion payments annually, totaling $6.9 trillion for more than 100 million people per year. In May, the department announced plans to expand its use of AI to bolster government efforts to combat financial crimes.
The use of AI to strengthen the Treasury’s operations comes at a time in which JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon issued a major warning about the global economic situation over ongoing geopolitical threats coming from an “evil axis” that shows “that conditions are treacherous and getting worse.”
Dimon’s words came in a press release from the financial git accompanying its third-quarter earnings, which beat analysts’ expectations and saw the bank set aside $1 billion more in reserve to cover growing losses from unpaid loans.
Featured image via Unsplash.
