Lantern Credit has acquired the Abstract Regression Classification (ARC) Machine Learning Library to enhance its proprietary machine learning solution, Beam AI; the firm expects the acquisition and machine learning enhancements to improve its credit advice, credit offers and support for financial institutions; according to Chad Swensen, CEO of Lantern Credit, "Leveraging the ARC software to advance the Beam AI technology produces the most advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning application in the consumer credit management space." Source
A 2015 McKinsey report says today's technology is ready to replace approximately 45% of US jobs across a wide range of industries; federal and state governments have been receiving numerous inquiries about the effects of robot automation on the labor market however little has been done by legislators on the topic; Bill Gates has one suggestion for the economy; he suggests a tax for robot automation; a number of scenarios have come from Gates' robot tax suggestions, including: a company tax for robot automation that would contribute to social programs, designating government funds for salaried workers affected by robots, using taxes to provide a universal income for all citizens and a negative income tax. Source
In an article from American Banker, the pros and cons of AI-based credit scores are outlined; pros include more precise scores through more nuanced evaluations of data and the ability to consider consumers that linear models would reject; the cons are the risk that regulators will consider an AI-based score a "black box" and being able to provide one clear reason for credit denial; perspectives from Elevate, ID Analytics, Experian and FICO on AI credit scoring are presented in the article. Source
Lend Academy provides details on IBM Watson's acquisition of Promontory Financial Group, a firm used to help navigate complex banking regulations; IBM has acquired Promontory to train Watson on Dodd-Frank which includes 22,000 pages of regulation; Promontory has experience from a long list of banking veterans and will help train Watson on financial risk modeling, surveillance, anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC); the result will be an artificial intelligence solution that can be implemented for all aspects of compliance, regulation and monitoring; Brian Walter, Watson global industry leader for banking and financial markets at IBM will be speaking at LendIt USA 2017 in a featured keynote discussing how financial firms are using artificial intelligence and how it's expected to evolve. Source
Artificial intelligence is being utilized across all industries with new startups offering innovative market solutions; in January CB Insights released a list of 100 top artificial intelligence startups; Zoox tops the list as the most well-funded company with total funding of $290 million; it is also a fintech unicorn with a valuation of over $1 billion; among venture capitalists, Data Collective has emerged as a top investor partnering with 14 companies from the list for venture capital investment. Source
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based artificial intelligence (AI) platform Kensho has built a solution that can successfully predict market trading and is receiving significant attention from Wall Street; its AI-powered platform helped the company identify currency trends following Brexit that resulted in substantial gains from trades against the British pounds decreasing value; the company has announced a new partnership with S&P Global and has received investment from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, General Catalyst, Breyer Capital and Google Ventures; the firm is led by Daniel Nadler, a Harvard trained Ph.D; its new partnership with S&P Global Market Intelligence will supply new data feeds to power its AI analysis and support its numerous solutions including the Kensho Global Event Database and Kensho's Knowledge Graph; the business is expected to become integrated with Wall Street's mainstream banks, emerging as one of the market's leading solutions for AI-powered trading. Source
CNBC profiles three companies emerging in the banking industry with solutions built from machine learning technology; Digit has created a solution that integrates with a user's bank account to automate savings based on account balances and spending patterns; Zest Finance is offering credit scoring technology based on AI algorithms using alternative credit data; Adyen is also using machine learning for fraud prevention; overall machine learning solutions are evolving rapidly and speculators believe they will revolutionize the workforce; Goldman Sachs says machine learning and AI will enable $34 billion to $43 billion in annual cost savings and new revenue opportunities for the financial sector by 2025; it's also expected that AI and machine learning will begin to replace jobs that can be easily automated while also creating greater opportunities for software developers and data scientists. Source
Babak Hodjat is managing a hedge fund in San Francisco run completely by artificial intelligence (AI); his firm Sentient Technologies Inc. has been building an AI system for analyzing markets and automating trading for over a decade; performance for the firm is not publicly disclosed; numerous firm's in the wealth management industry are using some form of unbiased automated trading however Sentient is one of few firms that completely uses AI technology for comprehensively managing assets. Source
IBM Watson will be further expanding in financial services by partnering with H&R Block's 70,000 tax professionals at 10,000 locations; Watson has learned 74,000 pages of tax code through its natural language processing capability and will be able to help tax professionals at H&R Block's branches; the new services have been tested at 100 locations and will begin being used in February; overall, IBM plans to market Watson as a business service solution with its capabilities offered to consumers through innovative business partnerships. Source
The running joke is that after Dodd-Frank banks have become compliance companies that happen to make loans. It is funny...