CEO Gary M. Shiffman Pushes Bank Compliance and Risk Professionals to Use Measurement of Artificial Intelligence Performance to Overcome Bias at American Bankers Association Webinar
Gary M. Shiffman, PhD, Founder and CEO of Giant Oak and Consilient, taught concepts such as Machine Learning “distributions” and “thresholds” to empower risk and compliance professionals to make decisions in an AI-enabled world
ARLINGTON, Va. – Gary M. Shiffman, PhD, a professor, behavioral scientist, and founder of two machine learning companies, Giant Oak and Consilient, led a discussion with banking professionals on the importance of measuring artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to manage risk and overcome bias at a webinar hosted by the American Bankers Association. The webinar, entitled “AI and Machine Learning: How Do You Know if it’s Working?”, was meant to address the urgent demand for knowledge and understanding of AI/ML systems being adopted across the risk and compliance communities. This is in line with Dr. Shiffman’s year-long mission to engage in meaningful and thought-provoking discussions about measurement of AI/ML systems so that people can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of combating financial crime and other threats to public safety and security.
The American Bankers Association (ABA) gathers professionals from financial institutions of varying asset sizes and charter types to create a community of experts and peers who share resources for education, advocacy, tools and insights. This webinar was meant to address the growing need for compliance professionals to better understand how to manage, measure, and therefore trust newly adopted AI/ML technology. Conversations like these are urgently needed in the compliance and risk communities to ensure optimum performance and reduce bias. As seen in the federal register’s recent request for information, the federal government is also engaging in this conversation as they seek to understand how financial institutions in the U.S. are using artificial intelligence for their compliance efforts.
“Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are transforming the way we detect illicit behaviors. Artificial intelligence allows bank examiners to rapidly screen massive amounts of data and utilize the pattern-recognition capabilities of machine learning to help teams detect crimes like fraud and money laundering that would otherwise go undetected,” said Shiffman, who also teaches at Georgetown University and is the author of The Economics of Violence (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
“Without measuring the performance of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, compliance professionals will inevitably rely on bias when making decisions to manage risk within their institutions,” explained Shiffman. “That is why I am so passionate about empowering professionals who work on the front lines of protecting the world from financial criminals.”
Shiffman has spent the last several months addressing the need to measure AI/ML with written resources like his recent ABA Bank Compliance Magazine article and webinar discussions with the Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum and the Deloitte Great Debates. Shiffman plans to continue his efforts to support bank examiners and the bank professionals they regulate on these topics with future speaking engagements and training materials, including the ABA Regulatory Compliance Conference in June. Giant Oak and Consilient are both focused on serving the finance community and making the world a safer place with innovative, efficient and effective screening solutions. Both companies are invested in addressing the deficits in the compliance community through education, resources, and training sessions.
For more resources on the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, please visit www.giantoak.com and www.consilient.com.
About Giant Oak
Giant Oak operates at the frontier of behavioral science and machine learning, building trusted tools that enable you to make both rapid and informed decisions in an increasingly dynamic security environment. Giant Oak Search Technology (GOST®) makes screening easy. GOST is an open-source search and triage tool that builds a custom internet domain and organizes information to detect suspicious behavior. GOST re-indexes the open and deep webs to return publicly available electronic information (PAEI) in prioritized results relevant to the user’s requirements. By deploying machine-learning algorithms to refine search results and generate analytic scores, entities are sorted by relevance and threat level. For more information, visit www.giantoak.com.
About Consilient
Founded in 2020 through a partnership between K2 Integrity and Giant Oak, Consilient brings together next-generation technology and best-in-class anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) knowledge. Consilient is proud to be collaborating with Intel to bring this model to the market. This combination powers a more secure, dynamic and effective solution for financial institutions.
