The two watchdogs disagreed on the two big US investment banks: the FDIC rejected Goldman Sachs’ plan but accepted Morgan Stanley’s, while the Federal Reserve did the exact opposite. Both regulators found deficiencies in Citigroup’s living will but did not conclude that it was “not credible”.
The critical judgments mark the second time that US banks’ living wills have fallen short in the eyes of the Fed or FDIC. This time the shortcomings varied by bank but included flawed computer models, inadequate assumptions about the capital required to be wound up and unacceptable judgments on when to enter bankruptcy.
“Having answers to these issues for each [systemically important bank] is critical to successfully move one through bankruptcy.” Mr.Hoenig said.
The five banks expressed their commitment to addressing their shortcomings, which they said they took seriously, but also noted that regulators said they had made some progress.
Marianne Lake, JPMorgan’s chief financial officer, said it had received details of the decision less than 24 hours before it was made public, on the morning the bank released its quarterly data.
David Hirschmann of the US Chamber of Commerce, the biggest business lobby, said the living wills process was “broken”. “When you can’t comply no matter how much money you put into legitimately trying to comply, maybe it’s time to ask: did we get the test wrong?”
It is of utmost importance to appreciate that the global village has become a profound reality of our existence with neither regard nor respect for national borders or ideologies. I am obliged to backtrack and refresh the mandate given to me as a precondition for this lecture to wit:
“……….emphasise and build on the global strategic framework for companies to place sustainability at the heart of their operations from staff recruitment to product innovation and environmental management”
I must nevertheless alert you that what is currently trending on social media is the front page headline of the “Financial Times” of 15 February 2016: “scientists warn AI means job losses in every profession – including the oldest.”
Bart Selman, professor of computer science at Cornell, said: “AI is moving rapidly from academic research into the real world. Computers are starting to ‘hear’ and ‘see’ as humans do …… He said the likes of Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft were scaling up investments in AI systems to billions of dollars a year.
Professors Vardi and Selman said governments were not facing up to the acceleration of AI and robotics research.
Prof. Selman helped draft an open letter last year from the Future of Life Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to policymakers urging them to explore the risks associated with increasingly intelligent machines.
According to Prof. Selman, one of the fastest-advancing areas of AI is machine vision, applied to the self-driving vehicles that scientists predict will take over roads in the next 25 years.
Advocates of automated driving argue that it will cut accidents by 90 per cent or more.
“With so many lives saved and injuries prevented, it would be very hard, morally, for anyone to argue against it,” Prof Selman said. Yet about 10 per cent of US jobs involve driving a vehicle.
Prof Vardi said it would be hard to think of any jobs that would not be vulnerable to robotics and AI – even sex work. “Are you going to bet against sex robots?” he said. “I’m not.”
We are entitled to feast on the three brilliant books by Martin Ford:
- “The Rise Of The Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future”
- “The Lights In The Tunnel”
- “Shadow Work”.
I can assure you that whatever time you invest in reading these fascinating theses, is time well spent especially as the author has taken great pains to alert us that we must be ready to meet the future now. His prognosis is that with the rise of the robots, social and economic disruptions are inevitable. The warning is clear and unequivocal:
“Robots are getting too smart, too flexible and too convenient. And that is the problem, because if robots take all the jobs, our long march of progress may well go into reverse.”
Recently, Fareed Zacharia devoted an entire programme on CNN [Global Public Square] to these critical developments. More and more philosophers and visionaries are urging us to meet the future today.
From the internet the following snippets can be down loaded from the report on Tata Communications’ two-day CEO Summit 2016 held at Coworth Park, near Ascot, Berkshire, U.K.
- Artificial Intelligence is there for all to see – in robolics, virtual and augmented reality, gaming and more.
“We showcase shopping-carrying bots, drone racing, plants that can perfect air conditioning, devices that tell you if you’re happy, and there is even a herd of baby robot dinosaurs,” says future technologist and product innovator at Tata Communications David Eden
“AI is relevant today because the processing power required to do useful things with it has hit a level of maturity, and because the other critical building blocks for AI – superfast connectivity and secure cloud computing – are now ubiquitous.”
- The truth is that in order to take advantage of AI’s possibilities, businesses need a reliable, secure and evolving infrastructure.
Tata Communications, whose network powers almost a quarter of the world’s internet routes and allows people and businesses to reach 240 countries and territories, is well placed to help. “Tata Communications is putting its money where its mouth is, investing in AI, including Sentient, and working hard to understand it, while educating others, as shown by this summit.”
“The sooner we can turn on business leaders to the possibilities of how AI could help them, the faster the market can grow. Ultimately, that optimisation of costs, products and services will benefit all of humanity.”
- Vinod Kumar, Chief Executive of Tata Communications:
“AI is no longer the stuff of science fiction; it is in the mainstream of information technology… We must share our ideas on how to fulfil its potential while guarding against any social and economic disruption.”
- Jack Hidary:
“At last we have arrived at the age of machine intelligence. Now we can easily crunch terabytes and petabytes and Exabytes of data, and that means AI programmes will shoot up the very steep learning curve rapidly. However, I believe we have only seen about one per cent of what AI can ultimately do.
“This summit comes at a critical moment in the evolution of humans and in terms of the development of ourselves as leaders. Every chief executive in the room will come away with the distinct impression that AI will disrupt their industry. It’s up to each leader to choose whether to harness this available power or feel the effects of it from others.”
- Randy Dean, Chief Business Officer at Sentient Technologies:
“Everything invented in the past 150 years will be reinvented using AI within the next 15 years”
- Concluded
J.K. Randle
