By Esther Lancaster1
1AI Ethics Specialist
Innovation will continue to disrupt until we are satisfied that humanity is being benefitted at the highest level. This will only happen once we have challenged the underlying principles of each existing system – including the financial system – through the precise and exacting lens of an Artificial Intelligence.
As with all areas where we code our human intelligence into machines, algorithmic biases reveal where we as a society are at. The automation of our financial user experience through AI shows us the very way we have structured this value system, and enables us to decide what we want, and what simply does not serve the evolution of humanity. This is a natural progression.
For example, if a credit card company develops an algorithm to predict a customer’s creditworthiness whilst adhering to a business model of maximized profit, it will invariably undermine principles of fairness. The system, when considered as a circuit must serve all parties; if it doesn’t, new solutions will be found that support a profitable, prosperous financial model. For example, Universal Basic Income is a healthy option for a new world that looks nothing like the previous version – like nothing we can even imagine.
Right now the resistance and scepticism regarding UBI is strong, because we are still coming at it from a scarcity mindset, one that suggests that we as a species have limited resources and must push against what is comfortable in order to create wealth and success.
The reality of this technological revolution is that there are no limitations; we have all the resources we could ever need and far more, and the only single limitation humanity has is that we’ve subscribed to a mentality of scarcity and lack, that is misaligned with our open-ended capacity of intelligence. We have entered the era of the exponential technology both as a reflection of – and to support – this very powerful expansion of mind.
Explainability and transparency are essential aspects of this process that the financial industry is embarking on. As children we are encouraged to “show our working out” when tackling algebra or long division. Similarly, as this is a new, deeper mathematic underpinning an immense expansion of mind, it will benefit everyone to be completely clear throughout the process.
Each system can and will be optimized. We are embarking on a new world that works entirely distinctly from a limited definition of what it means to be human. Whilst the previous version served a purpose, AI, blockchain and other exponential technologies – collectively termed cyber-physical systems (CPS) – augment the current condition, unburdening and elevating the human mind.
This cyber-physical process considers the way in which our minds work in order to develop technologies that can do the same. Yet at each stage we are seeing, literally in black and white and 1’s and 0’s, that we as a society have biases; we have subscribed to limiting beliefs that have debilitated our capacity as a species. Through the process of data cleaning, empowerment and creators’ responsibility, we are literally cleaning up our own minds and the collective narrative.
Cyber-physical technologies leave room for no doubt as to the power we have at our fingertips, and solutions that do not have data-integrity have no possible longevity in the coming era. It is necessary for the wisdom of the whole to decide how we want the future of finance to develop and those systems that do not support society to thrive will become obsolete. The new standard provides all of society with a level of comfort, ease, pleasure and happiness far greater than the previous model.
One of the main obstacles for AI in the financial markets revolves around managing risk that originates from human behaviour. What this really means is that the systems we have built and relied upon thus far, simply have not met our needs as a society. They are not “human-centred”. With millions of startups, each innovating a different arena within the field, a larger surface area is covered. All of this technology takes a flexible approach to addressing specific challenges. Whether the focus is credit, insurance, wealth management, poverty, automation, etc, it is really up to each company to deeply consider the human behaviour and needs associated with that area, and provide all-encompassing solutions. This is absolutely possible. The limitless capability of exponential tech enables this kind of intimacy and expansion.
With contactless payments, the smartphone wallet and automated payment options at convenience stores, the way in which we relate to the financial industry is indeed shifting, whereby money is no longer a physical entity.
However, this is just the first step. With the use of artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology (DLT), we are moving toward a time where not only is the phone a wallet, but the car can be a wallet, paying for its own petrol and insurance without human assistance. Our clothes can have sensory payment capability embedded into them just as easily and from there it is only matter of time before our human bodies themselves become the login and password for the lifestyle we live. Such potential generates concerns of privacy, security, fairness, equality, inclusivity and so on…and when we start considering the human body as a vehicle for digital connectivity and transaction, we enter a whole new level of ethical consideration. As we relax deeply into decoding the human mind in order to create such powerful solutions, we enter refined subtleties of intelligence.
These deeper subtleties of mind are exquisite and thus cannot be coded into “dangerous machines”. Such subtleties of mind are peaceful and provide for a more seamless, holistic technological experience. An open-ended potential rather than one that is limited by its own code. “Human-centred” technologies, that understand human needs, won’t be developed using the same coding structure that has been used thus far. The effortlessness and clarity of wisdom must be acknowledged in the process of development, for the technology to feel natural to the user. This is the standard society is now commanding.
The Wisdom Vantage cannot be used for anything other than the wisdom activity of mind, speech and action, and the same is true as it is extended into technology. Developing products in this manner will present solutions for all industries, including the financial industry, that can’t be imagined currently, yet provide a higher standard of comfort for all. This is new terminology for the technology sector. We are building a bridge to a new way of being human, where individual needs are met and exceeded.