The ECB admits the use of AI tools in its operations

The European Central Bank (ECB) has acknowledged that it is currently using AI tools, although it has specified that the use is limited to preparatory work to reduce the burden of routine tasks on its professionals.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
17 March 2024 Sunday 16:50
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The ECB admits the use of AI tools in its operations

The European Central Bank (ECB) has acknowledged that it is currently using AI tools, although it has specified that the use is limited to preparatory work to reduce the burden of routine tasks on its professionals. This was admitted by the president of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), Claudia Buch, in an interview with the Financial Times.

The German has pointed out that "the more you can reduce routine tasks and the more you can free highly qualified colleagues from things that a machine could do better (...) in terms of simple text analysis or text search the better it will be."

However, he has warned that the use of technology is limited to tasks such as synthesizing and classifying information, which represents a great relief in terms of time for the personnel in charge of these functions.

"But there's still the human part, the judgment part, of course. These are very critical decisions. We're using these AI tools to prepare them, but not to make them. That's where you definitely need human judgment," he explains.

In this sense, regarding the use of AI by entities, Buch considers that it can be extremely efficient when processing requests for credit files, although he warns of the importance of banks ensuring that there are no biases in these data so that there can be no discriminatory judgments.

"This must be taken into account when using artificial intelligence tools. It is really necessary to understand what is happening there, what is the algorithm from which decisions are made or prepared," says the president of the MUS, pointing out that "that is also something we are working on with the banks, of course, to understand what they are doing.

"Banks have to show us that they are not simply blindly using tools that can lead to decisions and risks that we do not want to see," he adds.