A day after the CFTC named its first chief AI officer, Commissioner Kristin Johnson made her comments.
Kristin Johnson, a commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has put up three ideas to govern AI technology in relation to the American financial markets.
Johnson, speaking at the May 2 Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting, outlined the CFTC’s three-pronged agenda. One is to create a task force to “evaluate, assess, and harmonize guidance, supervision, and regulation that addresses the increasing integration of AI in financial markets.” The second is to increase penalties for the intentional misuse of AI. Johnson concluded by stating that the CFTC would establish a “principles-based framework” to assess the risks associated with AI integration into financial markets.
Lawmakers have long advocated for investigatory task forces and common-sense risk assessment platforms, but Johnson’s claim that crimes using AI should be subject to “heightened sanctions” would substantially alter the current legal system.
“Guns raise risk; therefore, when they are used to conduct crimes, punishments are more harsh,” Johnson noted in a prior speech delivered by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. Artificial intelligence, like a weapon, may make a crime far more dangerous.
Johnson argues that the emergence of AI technologies and their susceptibility to abuse warrant comparable consideration:
“In response to these worries, the Commission should make it more difficult to get around sanctions for fraud, market manipulation, and regulatory evasion using artificial intelligence. We need to make sure that bad actors are aware of the consequences of employing AI for rule-breaking and do all we can to discourage them from doing so.”
The appointment of Ted Kaouk as the first Chief AI Officer of the CFTC follows the commissioner’s speech. In his prior position at the CFTC, Kaouk oversaw data operations as both chief data officer and director of the division.
On the other hand, Johnson has been nominated for the post of Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who is the ranking member of the Financial Services Committee and just sent a letter to U.S. president Joseph Biden offering her recommendation. If nominated and confirmed, Johnson would be instrumental in establishing rules and laws pertaining to the American financial sector.
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