Big banks are talking up generative A.I. — but the risks mean they're not diving in headfirst

cnbc.com:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Major banks and fintech companies claim to be piling into generative artificial intelligence as the hype surrounding the buzzy technology shows no signs of fizzling out — but there are lingering fears about potential pitfalls and risks.

At the Money 20/20 fintech conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, executives at large lenders and online finance firms sang the praises of generative AI, calling it an «explosion of innovation,» and saying it will «unleash innovation in areas that we can't even think about.»

Chalapathy Neti, head of AI at global bank messaging network Swift, described the progress made with ChatGPT and GPT-4 as «mind-boggling.» He added, «This is truly a transformative moment.»

But in the short term, banks are scrambling to figure out the use cases.

The Netherlands' ABN Amro is one banking giant that's piloting the use of generative AI in its processes.

Annerie Vreugdenhil, chief commercial officer of ABN Amro's personal and business banking division, revealed on a panel that it is using the technology to automatically summarize conversations between bank staff and customers. It's also using it to help its employees gather data on customers to assist with answering queries and avoid repetitive questions.

The bank is now in the process of scaling these pilots to 200 employees and is exploring a number of new pilots to start this summer.

In a closed-door session on the application of AI in financial services, meanwhile, two banking executives explained how they're using the technology to improve their internal code and analyze how their clients are behaving.

«We are experimenting at this stage and we don't have necessarily anything client facing but we are using the [tech the] same