Aug 14, 2019
Few experts are as deeply immersed in both financial regulation and advanced computing technologies than Gene Ludwig, the former comptroller of the currency who founded Promontory Financial Group, currently an IBM subsidiary that applies its regulatory expertise to training IBM’s Watson in banking rules. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, Ludwig talks about the current state of artificial intelligence in banking and the outlook for community banks and compliance professionals. He discusses:
- The relative skills of AI versus humans, with machine learning making AIs like Watson increasingly good at memorizing vast quantities of data, while humans remain excellent at intuition with small data sets.
- The continuing need for banking talent even as AI becomes better. “No compliance officer need fear that he or she is out of work,” Ludwig says.
- The role of AI in helping mitigate conduct risk, which has become magnified by social media. “To solve those problems, you need additional compliance resources, including technology,” he explains.
- How community banks can benefit from reduced costs as off-the-shelf AI solutions come into the market.
- The need for AI solutions to be “explainable” to regulators and the importance of ensuring AI tools do not amplify existing biases to create fair lending risk.