Myanmar’s repressive use of AI to counter “terrorism”

Executive summary

The military in Myanmar is engineering an AI-powered digital dictatorship under the false pretext of national security and counter “terrorism”. This is not merely a collection of surveillance tools but a core component of the military’s campaign of repression, designed to automate and scale up atrocity crimes against the opposition.

Myanmar has become a laboratory for 21st-century authoritarianism, and this report details its architecture, enablers, and the profound human rights consequences. Our investigation reveals that the military is using AI-powered technology for several distinct, repressive functions:

1. To profile and control the population: AI powers a national biometric database designed to eliminate anonymity by fusing personal, travel, and financial data. This creates comprehensive profiles that make any dissident activity transparent to the state.
2. To hunt opponents in real-time: AI-powered facial recognition cameras scan public spaces to automatically identify and track dissenters against “wanted lists”, turning everyday life into a state of constant, automated surveillance.
3. To censor and isolate the nation: A “Great Firewall” uses AI to intercept private communications, understand coded language, and map dissident networks. The system blocks tools of evasion like VPNs, pushing people into a closed, State-controlled space.
4. To automate atrocity crimes: A technological pipeline leads from digital identification to physical harm, facilitating arbitrary arrests, torture, and attacks. The trajectory is toward an automated “kill chain” where algorithms could make lethal decisions without human oversight, enabling extrajudicial killing

The report argues that the military is using AI as a human rights violation multiplier, amplifying harm through unprecedented scale, speed, and predictive capacity. It automates bias, erodes due process, and creates a “black box” system where people cannot challenge the algorithmic decisions that lead to their arrest, torture, or death.

This digital tyranny is not a domestic creation; it is fuelled by a global accountability vacuum. An international supply chain of AI companies from China, India, Israel, and the West continues to provide the necessary hardware and software, bypassing weak and outdated export controls. Simultaneously, social media platforms like Telegram and Meta serve as vectors for military-backed AI-generated doxing, harassment, and incitement.

With domestic legal remedies completely absent, this report calls for urgent international action. We provide concrete recommendations to establish a regulatory framework for AI, enforce mandatory corporate due diligence, and pursue international justice to hold both the junta and its corporate enablers accountable for their complicity in AI-enabled atrocity crimes.

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