Cybersecurity

The President Biden Executive Order builds upon previous actions and includes voluntary commitments from 15 leading companies for the safe, secure, and trustworthy development of AI as part of a comprehensive strategy for responsible innovation​1​.Moreover, the Executive Order aligns with the broader objectives of ensuring that America leads in managing AI’s promise and risks, advancing equity and civil rights, standing up for consumers and workers, promoting innovation and competition, and advancing American leadership globally​​.The most significant and immediate challenge for the financial services and technology industries is that any Executive Order does not require congressional approval, but they are mandates and compel federal agencies like National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to follow the order’s directives. While an order should not contradict or supersede any existing laws, because the order has initiated likely policy changes, the potential impact is significant. Orchestrating the most comprehensive set of measures ever taken to protect Americans from potential risks associated with AI systems without having either legislation or AI standards and an AI governance framework in place is pointing out the dire need for the development of said standards and tools and the requirement of sharing of test results for the most high-risk systems.