Last year I wrote about how AI regulations will lead to the emergence of professional AI risk managers. This has already happened in the financial sector where regulations patterned after Basel rules have created a financial risk management profession to assess financial risks. Last week, the EU published a 108-page proposal to regulate AI systems. This will lead to the emergence of professional AI risk managers. The proposal doesn't cover all AI systems, just those deemed high-risk, and the regulation would vary depending on how risky the specific AI systems are: Since systems with unacceptable risks would be banned outright, most of the regulation is about high-risk AI systems.

When the 1970s and 1980s were colored by banking crises, regulators from around the world banded together to set international standards on how to manage financial risk. Those standards, now known as the Basel standards, define a common framework and taxonomy on how risk should be measured and managed. This led to the rise of professional financial risk managers, which was my first job. The largest professional risk associations, GARP and PRMIA, now have over 250,000 certified members combined, and there are many more professional risk managers out there who haven't gone through those particular certifications. We are now beset by data breaches and data privacy scandals, and regulators around the world have responded with data regulations.