Hyderabad Police Commissioner Calls for Digital ID Cards for AI Agents

Hyderabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar has ignited a crucial debate about AI accountability by proposing mandatory digital identity cards for autonomous software agents. In a detailed social media post, the commissioner overseeing India's 11-million-person metropolis warned that unchecked AI systems in critical infrastructure like banks, hospitals, and power grids create systemic vulnerabilities where "we are at risk of losing control over them."

Sajjanar's proposal specifically demands traceable digital identifiers that log every action taken by AI agents: "Which agent opened which file? When did it make changes? To whom did it send information?" Such forensic capabilities would enable investigators to pinpoint responsibility when AI systems cause harm—whether through operational errors or when hijacked by malicious actors.

This initiative arrives amid tightening global regulations for digital systems:

Global Regulatory Momentum

• China's Central Bank expanded its cryptocurrency ban to prohibit tokenization of real-world assets and Yuan-pegged stablecoins, asserting sovereign control over financial systems
• Australia's Privacy Tribunal overturned a ruling against hardware chain Bunnings' facial recognition use, but still found violations of privacy principles requiring operational changes
• China proposed bans on creating AI replicas of humans to accompany elderly relatives, citing ethical concerns

Accountability Frameworks Explained

Sajjanar's digital ID proposal parallels core principles in GDPR (Article 22) and CCPA Section 1798.185(a)(3), which mandate explainability and human oversight for automated decisions. Unlike these regulations focused on data processing, Hyderabad's initiative targets operational accountability—requiring AI agents to carry immutable audit trails like human employees carrying ID badges.

Impact Analysis

For organizations: Implementation would require:

• Real-time activity logging infrastructure
• Cryptographic verification of AI agent identities
• Forensic readiness for incident response

Non-compliance risks could mirror GDPR penalties reaching 4% of global revenue. For users: Such systems could increase transparency around AI decisions affecting healthcare, finance, or public services, but raise concerns about new surveillance vectors if identification logs are mismanaged.

Broader Implications

This proposal signals growing governmental insistence on operational traceability for AI systems. As autonomous agents proliferate, regulators appear to be moving beyond data protection toward active behavior monitoring. The Hyderabad initiative—combined with Australia's facial recognition scrutiny and China's AI replica bans—suggests a global trend where governments demand:

1. Attribution mechanisms for AI actions
2. Boundaries for ethically sensitive applications
3. Sovereign control over digital infrastructure

With AI integration accelerating, these developments foreshadow tighter regulatory frameworks requiring enterprises to engineer accountability into autonomous systems from inception. As Commissioner Sajjanar concluded: "If an accident happens by mistake, we can immediately identify which agent caused it and rectify the issue"—a principle now gaining global traction.