New Delhi, April 21 -- India's plan to use artificial intelligence to reduce a tide of spam is drawing the ire of the nation's lenders and digital platforms, who warn the effort risks affecting the digital backbone of the economy. Banks and fintech giants claim the automated system could hinder essential customer alerts, from fraud warnings to one-time passwords (OTPs).

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is seeking to keep a crisis at bay, which saw spam complaints triple to 2.5 million last year from 2021, according to data tabled in the Lok Sabha in February by the Department of Telecommunications. However, its proposal to empower telecom networks to automatically penalize senders based on AI assistance has pitted traditi...