With artificial intelligence playing an increasingly important role in the financial industry, the technology will be the focus of a new task force established by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC recently announced that its AI Task force will lead the commission’s efforts “to enhance innovation and efficiency in its operations through the responsible use of AI.” The unit will be led by Valerie Szczepanik, who has been named the SEC’s Chief AI Officer.
According to the SEC, the task force will accelerate the integration of AI throughout the agency and support innovation from its divisions and offices. “It will centralize the agency’s efforts and enable internal cross-agency and cross-disciplinary collaboration to navigate the AI lifecycle, remove barriers to progress, focus on AI applications that maximize benefits, and maintain governance,” the SEC said in its press release.
“The AI Task Force will empower staff across the SEC with AI-enabled tools and systems to responsibly augment the staff’s capacity, accelerate innovation, and enhance efficiency and accuracy,” said SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins. “By ingraining innovation into our culture SEC-wide, we will further our mission to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.”
Szczepanik previously served as Director of the SEC’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology. She was also the Senior Advisor for Digital Assets and Innovation and an Associate Director in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance.
“The AI Task Force will aim to centralize and align efforts to advance AI-enabled transformation across the entire Commission,” said Szczepanik. “I look forward to accelerating work already underway in the SEC’s divisions and offices to build enterprise capacity for AI innovation and implement AI solutions that are trustworthy, effective, and mission enhancing.”
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