That was one question hanging over New York this week, as world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly. For while some investors are fretting that the AI stock bubble might burst and/or some data centre debt go into default, many UNGA attendees raised another question: will malevolent humans use AI to launch devastating cyber attacks on key infrastructure — such as financial markets? Indeed, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and the Gates Foundation, thinks that such threats are so real that he told me that AI was now “by far” the most dangerous technology ever created.
He wants governments and tech companies to install AI monitoring systems to indicate (and hopefully prevent) any attempted malevolent use. Maybe this will happen; the news that China and the US are considering a joint “hotline” to discuss AI risks is a small symbolic step in the right direction. So is the prevalence of such debates at UNGA.
Drastically more needs to be done, however. And as politicians, investors and voters digest these lofty pledges, they should also track another less glamorous — and less visible — realm: global regulation. Out of public sight, debates are now bubbling among supervisors about how to tackle financial risks from AI.
This is not just when it comes to top-level global deals but by using agentic AI systems in a granular way themselves. In plain English, some bureaucrats are now trying to fight digital fire with fire. This might sound counterintuitive.
But I saw one example earlier this month at a meeting on digital regulation in Cambridge, hosted by an initiative of which I am an adviser. It was co-convened by Agustín Carstens (former head of the Bank for International Settlements) and Ashley Alder (chair of the Financial Conduct Authority), and featured what was billed as the first global “Agentic Regulator” hackathon. Dozens of western and non-western regulators, from both financial and non-financial spheres, participated, while nearly 300 teams made submissions.
From this frenzy, three key lessons emerged. First: supervisors now realise they cannot afford to wait for politicians to create the right laws or regulatory structures to control AI; the field is moving faster than any legislature can act or cut diplomatic deals. As one top regulator observed: “We have to be very creative with the powers we have on the books.” That will not be easy; bureaucrats are culturally conservative.
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