LONDON (Reuters) – Artificial intelligence lacks the human judgment needed to set interest rates, the Monetary Authority of Singapore chief said on Monday.
However, Singapore Central Bank managing director Chia Da Ji-un said AI could make it easier for criminals to carry out cyberattacks.
He said AI is being used in areas such as some economic modeling and fraud detection, but stressed that it is not at the stage of “replacing human judgment.”
Speaking at a Bank for International Settlements panel session on the use of AI, Chia said that understanding and looking ahead to the “future direction of inflation… (and) the transmission of monetary policy” will require a lot of judgment. .
“One day we may be able to blame monetary policy mistakes on AI,” he joked. “But if humans have to be responsible, humans will have to decide.”
Mr Chia, who took over as head of MAS earlier this year, also warned that the main risk was that AI could be used by cybercriminals.
“Another aspect that isn't talked about often is that AI has the potential to democratize access to malware, and not in a good way,” Chia said.
He said there are already tools available online to launch cyber attacks “for people with less sophisticated technical skills.” “That's a space we have to focus on.”
(Reporting by Mark Jones; Editing by David Gregorio)