Cambodia’s central bank is facing a threat that has nothing to do with interest rates or foreign reserves and everything to do with generative AI. Over the past several months, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has repeatedly had to publicly deny that a new series of riel banknotes was entering circulation, after AI-generated images and videos of fabricated bills spread across social media.
The riel’s credibility problem didn’t start with AI. More than 90% of commercial bank deposits in Cambodia, and roughly 85% to 90% of cash transactions, are already conducted in U.S. dollars rather than riel. That dollarisation dates back to 1978, when Vietnam’s invasion shattered the domestic economy. When the riel was reintroduced two years later, the government had no funds to replace worn-out notes, so dollars distributed through United Nations humanitarian aid quietly became the currency people trusted instead. Decades of inflation, including a brutal 35.57% spike in May 2008, cemented the dollar’s dominance and left the riel functioning more as a symbol of national identity than a practical medium of exchange.
That symbolic weight is exactly why AI-fabricated banknotes have hit such a nerve. Riel notes carry portraits of the King and Queen Mother, along with imagery the NBC says reflects national unity and cultural heritage. So when manipulated images began circulating showing Senate President Hun Sen and Prime Minister Hun Manet in place of the royals on a 10,000-riel note, it wasn’t just a currency question, it touched questions of political legitimacy and royal protocol at once.
The Anatomy of the Disinformation
The NBC has pointed to two Facebook accounts, run by social media personalities using the names Konkhmer Konndal and Kim Dabin, as sources of the fabricated 10,000-riel imagery, and both have been referred to Cambodian authorities for investigation. Dabin, who works in South Korea, released a video denying responsibility, explaining that she saw the fake note on a page designed to resemble the NBC’s official account, complete with a blue verification checkmark. That detail matters: the fakes weren’t just AI-generated images, they were wrapped in imitation institutional authority, making them harder for ordinary users, and even the accused, to distinguish from genuine central bank communications.
By early August, the problem had escalated beyond doctored images into full disinformation videos. The NBC rejected videos claiming a new series of riel banknotes had entered circulation, which paired the false claims with AI-generated designs, and said it was now working with authorities on legal action while urging the public not to share the content.
Cambodia’s legal response is drawing on statutes written long before generative AI existed. Article 53 of the Law on the Organization and Conduct of the NBC treats banknotes as property that holders must preserve, meaning even digitally defacing or altering their images is treated as a violation. Article 65 goes much further: counterfeiting currency, paper or coin, carries a sentence ranging from 20 years to life in prison. Whether that framework, designed for physical counterfeiting, translates cleanly to AI-generated images shared on Facebook and TikTok is an open legal question, but Cambodian authorities appear intent on testing it.
A Preview of a Broader Problem
Cambodia’s riel crisis is a small-scale preview of a challenge central banks and governments everywhere will face as generative AI makes convincing fake currency, official documents, and institutional communications trivially easy to produce. The core vulnerability wasn’t sophisticated image generation alone; it was the pairing of that imagery with spoofed institutional branding, including a fake verification checkmark, that made the deception plausible. For a currency already competing with the dollar for public trust, and an institution trying to project economic sovereignty, that combination poses a genuine reputational threat, one that legal warnings alone may not be enough to contain.
Written by:
*Chloe Maluleke
Associate at BRICS+ Consulting Group
Russia & Middle East Specialist
**The Views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Independent Media or IOL.
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