House Financial Services Subcommittee Considers Testimony on Mitigating the Risks of AI

Witnesses before the House Financial Services Committee Task Force on Artificial Intelligence provided testimony on mitigating risks associated with the deployment of artificial intelligence ("AI") technologies. The witnesses cautioned against overreliance on AI solutions and emphasized the need to preserve digital identities in an increasingly connected digital world. NYU Steinhardt School Assistant Professor of Data Policy Anne Washington warned that AI technologies remain incapable of disambiguating large data sets, and stressed that even the most advanced AI systems will continue to require human input for the foreseeable future. Professor Washington suggested balancing AI technologies, such as customer identification and fraud detection, with a human-based dispute resolution process to (i) establish a procedure that preserves the value of human experience under circumstances where organizations are more likely to defer to the AI over the customer, and (ii) continuously gather feedback for incremental improvement of the technology. Accenture Security Managing Director Valerie Abend made AI-based cybersecurity recommendations, including (i) ensuring federal or state legislation addressing AI is "technology-neutral" and does not choose winners and losers, (ii) creating policies to protect and advance AI innovation, thus harnessing this technology to help financial institutions defend against cyber-threats, and (iii) adopting a national data privacy law to help foster an "effective [and] robust" digital identity ecosystem to exist alongside AI technology.