On 19 March, OMFIF gathered key regulators and innovators at the inaugural AI in finance seminar in London. As AI continues to rise in the public consciousness, questions about regulation have become particularly widespread. This manifested recently in the UK AI summit, which brought together governments and key stakeholders to develop AI governance standards. Yet AI’s applications and risks in finance have gone largely unexplored in current AI policy and governance work. This was the area of focus for OMFIF’s seminar, in partnership with the University of Oxford.
Speakers included Mario Pisani (UK Treasury), Stephen Barr (Microsoft), Ellie Sweet (UK Department of Science, Innovation and Technology), Paolo Valenziano (Bank of England), Anne Leslie (IBM) and Robert Trager (University of Oxford).
The first panel centred around AI use cases within the public and private financial sectors. Pisani offered a cogent analysis of how the UK Treasury views AI use cases in finance and where potential risks might emerge from. Barr offered a window into how Microsoft views its commitments to AI safety and sustainability and Valenziano explained the role of AI in helping guide central bank communication methods, including social media use cases.
The second panel, meanwhile, was oriented on AI governance and regulation, where Sweet emphasised the future direction of UK AI regulations, particularly the UK continuing to take light touches to regulation and emphasise voluntary commitments. Leslie also noted the importance of getting AI adjustment right in a way that maximises social good and minimises harm and Trager underscored the need for global and domestic commitments to AI regulation as well as the importance of urgency.
The audience was polled on whether they felt optimistic about the future of AI policy in finance and most members of the in-person audience felt optimistic after the event’s conclusion. Yet this event underscored the vital importance of developing cogent regulatory frameworks to deal with AI’s challenges and the significance of stakeholder collaboration in achieving this.
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