Source: Beijing Business Daily

Finance is the most ideal application scenario for "AI+"Web3gamingstudiomythicalgamesoffAnd AI is one of the core drivers of inclusive finance. On April 29, at the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum-parallel Forum on Financial Technology, Mr Xu Zhengyu, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Hong Kong Special Administrative region, said that "artificial intelligence technology is widely used in the financial field." including research, data analysis, investment decision-making and customer service and other areas, bringing new changes to the mode of operation of the financial industry.

The Financial Science and Technology Development Plan (2022-2025) previously issued by the people's Bank of China clearly stated that we should seize the new opportunities for the development of global artificial intelligence and comprehensively promote the in-depth application of intelligent technology in the financial field on a people-oriented basis. In the view of many participants, the vigorous development of artificial intelligence has brought unlimited possibilities to the financial industry. But at the same time, "firmly stick to the bottom line of systemic financial risks" is still the key word, and the industry calls for stricter protection and requirements for data security.

In recent years, artificial intelligence has made great progress, especially the application of generative artificial intelligence. Statistics show that private investment in generative artificial intelligence in 2023 reached 25 billion US dollars, an increase of nine times over the previous year.

Talking about the opportunities that artificial intelligence brings to the financial industry, Xu Zhengyu said that in today's information age, the financial industry is facing a large amount of data and complex market environment, and artificial intelligence has a strong ability of data processing and analysis. it can mine valuable information from a huge database, help financial institutions better understand market trends and customer needs, and provide accurate forecasting and decision support. At the same time, it helps to improve the efficiency and speed of financial transactions and open up new possibilities for financial innovation.

In addition, artificial intelligence can cope with manpower shortages in the financial sector and automate relatively simple tasks to free up human resources to focus on complex value-added tasks, including supervision, system development and quality assurance, helping financial institutions improve productivity and efficiency.

According to a recent market research, artificial intelligence has been used in many areas of Hong Kong's financial industry, among which chatbot and identification authentication are the most widely used. The study also points out that the further application of artificial intelligence will bring a lot of opportunities for enterprises, especially in the areas of algorithmic trading and automated customer service.

Taking the banking industry as an example, artificial intelligence can identify the patterns and anomalies of financial transactions and detect and prevent fraud and money laundering as soon as possible. If a customer's use of a credit card deviates from the usual consumption pattern, artificial intelligence will mark it as suspicious activity, prompting banks to quickly launch an investigation, helping to protect customer assets and maintain the stability of the banking system as a whole.

At the same time, some challenges remain. "Safety" and "compliance" are unavoidable topics in the financial industry. While artificial intelligence accelerates the deep integration of finance and science and technology, the protection and application of data elements has become an important factor restricting the high-quality development of financial institutions.

First, financial institutions may need third-party service providers to provide the technology and infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence. Due to the concentration of artificial intelligence service providers in the market, if there is a sudden interruption or failure of services, it will affect the operation of financial institutions. Therefore, financial institutions must develop comprehensive contingency plans to ensure the smooth operation of the financial system.

Artificial intelligence models can write smooth and high-quality analysis as instructed, as well as understand images, process sounds, and create videos. However, artificial intelligence models also have the risk of hallucination and have the opportunity to output erroneous data that seems logical but not factual. Xu Zhengyu said that financial institutions and employees cannot rely entirely on artificial intelligence, nor can artificial intelligence replace the independent thinking and judgment of financial professionals.

Network security is another dilemma. The application of artificial intelligence by financial institutions may involve a large amount of data, including personal and sensitive information. Financial institutions must adopt sound cyber security measures, such as comprehensive encryption of personal and sensitive information, regular security reviews and the establishment of an institutional culture that focuses on data security. When applying artificial intelligence, financial institutions must respect the privacy of personal data and strictly abide by all applicable laws on the privacy of personal data and the protection of intellectual property rights.

In addition, in Xu Zhengyu's view, the accuracy of data and artificial supervision are crucial to the operation of artificial intelligence.

"the development of artificial intelligence has become an important trend in the world. As an international financial centre, artificial intelligence has been embodied in various areas such as banking, securities, insurance, accounting, retirement protection and green finance. the SAR Government will strive to make good use of the opportunities it brings and manage the risks and challenges at the same time. " Xu Zhengyu pointed out that finance is a data-based industry that is suitable for embracing artificial intelligence to greatly improve efficiency and competitiveness, but the improper use of artificial intelligence brings huge risks. He predicts that the popularity of artificial intelligence will continue to rise, and the amount of investment attracted in the future will continue to rise, creating new enterprises that will revolutionize the ecology of the industry.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Yue Pingyu Dong Jiexuan