Building trust and ethics in AI to combat fraud and economic crime
On 23 January 2020, ACCA, Visa and EY held their Anti-Money Laundering in the Digital Era: Building trust and ethics in AI to combat fraud and economic crimes conference, during which ACCA and EY launched their new joint report Economic crime in a digital age. Jeanne Boillet, Global Assurance Innovation Leader, EY, opened the event and MEP Luděk Niedermayer gave a keynote speech. The panel debate was moderated by Jessica Lennard, Senior Director, Global Strategic Data and AI Initiatives, Visa, who welcomed Pēteris Zilgalvis, Head of Unit, Digital Innovation and Blockchain, DG CONNECT; Andrei Stefanuc, Team Leader, Anti-money Laundering Policy, DG FISMA; Richard Campbell, Detective Superintendent, Head of Special Investigations, PSNI Serious Crime Branch; Marja Laitinen, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit lead for EMEA; and Fabian Vandenreydt, FabianVDR Advisory Services. Jason Piper, Head of Tax and Business Law, ACCA, gave a presentation of the new report.
All speakers agreed, that to combat fraud and economic crime in the digital era, international cooperation and collaboration are essential. This highlights the crucial role of trust and enforcement. It was also stressed that AI is just a technological enabler and will continue to be only one dimension of fighting fraud, which can complement existing analytics teams, supervised machine learning, processes and tools in fraud detection and combat. The vital importance of the human factor was also discussed, with the key message being: we will still need people to be trained and supporting processes, policies and frameworks. Any use of AI must also be underpinned by ethical values and practices, and economic crime is no exception. Privacy must be balanced with security, fairness and transparency if consumer trust is to be upheld.