Highlights from the Innaugural FinRegLab 2024 AI Symposium

This week, the FinRegLab AI Symposium brought together a powerhouse lineup of leaders and visionaries to tackle some of AI’s most urgent and complex questions. From ethics and transparency to the far-reaching effects on the economy and financial system, the discussions set the stage for shaping the next chapter of AI innovation. 

Here’s a look at some standout moments:

• Senator Mike Rounds, (Co-Chair, Senate AI Caucus) in conversation with Andrew Olmem (former Deputy Director, White House National Economic Council) offered thoughts on how Congress will approach AI policymaking in a bipartisan way.

• Michael J. Hsu (Acting Comptroller of the Currency) and Melissa Koide (CEO, FinRegLab ), followed by Adrienne A. Harris (Superintendent, New York State Department of Financial Services ) and Amy Friend (Board of Directors, FinRegLab ) discussed strategies financial regulators can use to balance fostering innovation with managing risks when regulating emerging technologies in finance. 

• Oren Cass (Chief Economist, American Compass ) and Hans Morris (Managing Partner, Nyca Partners ) discussed the fears, opportunities, and risks for worker prosperity as the AI age accelerates.

• John Hope Bryant (Founder & CEO, Operation HOPE ), Mike Calhoun (President, Center for Responsible Lending ), Lisa Rice (President & CEO, National Fair Housing Alliance ), Patrice Alexander Ficklin (Chief Fair Lending Officer, Fannie Mae ) made compelling cases for how AI could further exacerbate persistent inequalities.
• Rohit Chopra , (Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ), drew a parallel between policies and technologies locking the financial system into FICO and the risks of similar errors with AI. 
• Max Levchin (CEO, Affirm ), Rohan Ramanath (Founder, Hyperplane (acquired by nubank) ), and Alastair (Alex) Rampell (Head of AI Investment, Andreessen Horowitz ) joined a panel with moderator Jelena McWilliams (former Chair, FDIC, Partner, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP ) around innovations they are working on and their optimism for the transformative power of AI in finance.

• Prem Natarajan, PhD , (EVP, Chief Scientist and Head of Enterprise AI, Capital One ), Koren Picariello (Head of Generative AI Strategy & Execution, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management ), Laurent Domb (Chief Technologist Worldwide Public Sector Federal Financial Services, Amazon Web Services (AWS) ) described the efforts they have already made to incorporate AI tooling with Cap One’s culture around data and Morgan Stanley's special partnership with Open AI.
• Meredith Shields (Managing Director and Head of Citi Impact Fund), Clarence Wardell III, PhD (Senior Program Officer, Economic Mobility and Opportunity, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ), and Jimmy Chen (Founder & CEO, Propel, Inc ) offered their perspective on opportunities for AI tools, including machine learning, to improve financial health such as what both Propel and Clerkie are doing. 

• Lawrence H. Summers (Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University ) reiterated his view that the advent of AI is similar to that of electricity, and there could be an opportunity to approach AI regulation similar to the approach with the internet.
• Sam Altman (CEO, OpenAI ) joined Melissa Koide virtually for an engaging discussion on ‘The Intelligence Age’ with indications of more launches from Open AI and that there are many unknowns still about the age of AI.

• Chris Brummer (Founder and CEO, Bluprynt ) engaged Michael Barr (Federal Reserve Vice Chair) and Don Graves (Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce ) in a wide-ranging discussion on policy-making and innovation in the final session.

We were thrilled to see several of our partners in these conversations. Special shout out to our partner FinRegLab for pulling this much-needed symposium together and CEO Melissa Koide for hosting and her leadership. 

The future of AI starts with conversations like these. Flourish was honored to be a premier sponsor of the event with team members Tilman Ehrbeck (Managing Partner), Kabir Kumar (Partner, Ecosystem), Sarah Morgenstern (Venture Partner), John Onwualu (Principal), Crystal Sun (Senior Investment Analyst), and Evi M. (Investor) attending. We look forward to continuing to actively advance the discussions that will help shape its profound impact on financial services.