7The Role of AI in Banking
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. —“Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058”, Isaac Asimov (1942)
In 1942, science-fiction author Isaac Asimov introduced the world to his three laws of robotics1. An incredibly prescient visionary, Asimov started the world thinking about the potential challenges sentient or cognitive technology might present humanity. The number one principle for robotics may end up being: create more value than the human you displaced—the primary threat from AI’s may well be technological unemployment as opposed to robot overlords taking over the planet and enslaving humanity. While likely neither malevolent or benevolent, AI still has the potential to do large-scale damage structurally where employment and equality are concerned.
When you look for the organisations making big bets on artificial intelligence today2, the lists always include technology majors, but as yet we don’t see many banks investing anywhere near the scale of Microsoft, Google, Apple, Alibaba, Baidu and others. Industrial players like Boeing and Tesla are by necessity making big bets on AI, so it is entirely reasonable to expect that we should see a similar scale of investments coming through financial services, healthcare, etc. However, when we look at AI in financial services right now, the lion’s share of progress appears to be coming from players like Ant Financial and smaller FinTech’s who ...