SEC Creates AI Task Force
Securities and Exchange Commission veteran Valerie Szczepanik was named its chief artificial intelligence officer to lead the agency-wide effort.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is launching a task force on artificial intelligence, led by the agency’s new chief AI officer, Valerie Szczepanik.
The AI task force is centralizing the agency’s efforts to test and adopt AI-powered tools and systems and “focus on AI applications that maximize benefits,” according to the SEC.
Last month, Congress introduced a bill that would allow the SEC and six other financial regulatory agencies to run “AI Innovation Labs” with minimal regulation. The bill came one week after President Donald Trump issued directives on AI that called for companies to have “regulatory sandboxes” for rapid AI testing with minimal restrictions.
“By ingraining innovation into our culture SEC-wide, we will further our mission to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation,” said SEC Chair Paul Atkins in a statement.
Szczepanik has worked at the SEC since 1997, starting out as an assistant director of the Division of Enforcement’s cyber unit. In 2018, she was appointed to oversee digital assets and innovation, and she had served as the director of the SEC’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology until her recent appointment.
“I look forward to accelerating work already underway in the SEC’s divisions and offices to build enterprise capacity for AI innovation and implement AI solutions that are trustworthy, effective, and mission enhancing,” Szczepanik said in a statement.