Former SEC commissioner and AI CEO: An AI-enabled future is inspiring, but it takes planning and work
Investment
Fortune

Former SEC commissioner and AI CEO: An AI-enabled future is inspiring, but it takes planning and work

August 20, 2025
01:00 PM
6 min read
AI Enhanced
investmenttechnologyhealthcareenergymarket cyclesseasonal analysis

Key Takeaways

Trust in AI is needed for AI to flourish over time, delivering gains for humanity.

Article Overview

Quick insights and key information

Reading Time

6 min read

Estimated completion

Category

investment

Article classification

Published

August 20, 2025

01:00 PM

Source

Fortune

Original publisher

Key Topics
investmenttechnologyhealthcareenergymarket cyclesseasonal analysis

AI·Artificial IntelligenceFormer SEC commissioner and AI CEO: An AI-enabled future is inspiring, but it takes planning and workBy John NayBy Troy A

ParedesBy John NayBy Troy A

Paredes This will take planning and work.Getty ImagesArtificial intelligence may end up being more impactful than the Industrial Revolution

The private sector already has invested vast sums into and deploying AI

To accelerate AI innovation and adoption in the United States, the Trump administration recently announced a sweeping “AI Action Plan.” AI already is being used in fighting disease, doing sophisticated math, transporting people and ducts, supporting regulatory compliance, and designing physical structures

Last year, two Nobel Prizes had ties to AI—the Nobel Prize in physics “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks” and the Nobel Prize in chemistry “for computational tein design” and “tein structure prediction.” In announcing the 2024 chemistry Prize, the Nobel Committee claimed, “Life could not exist without teins

That we can now predict tein structures and design our own teins confers the greatest benefit to humankind.” An AI-enabled future is inspiring

AI’s considerable capacity to enhance a person’s daily life includes augmenting human skills, raising a person’s ductivity, and performing tasks, creating opportunities for people to spend time on more pressing priorities

At a macro level, AI should spur economic growth just as other nological breakthroughs have for centuries

Even more so, imagine if AI-human collaboration identifies a cure for cancer, leads to new food sources that redress hunger, and allows the building of buildings that better withstand earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and fires—none of which is far-fetched given the pace of AI re and AI’s expanding frontier

We appreciate that as remarkable as AI’s benefits are, AI has stirred concern for many, if not fear

Advanced AI systems are rapidly getting better at what they do

This roots some individuals’ primary worry that humans won’t be able to keep up with AI and that AI eventually will assume control

Attention also has centered on, among other things, the misuse of AI, deepfakes, hallucinations, AI’s effect on jobs, and safeguarding values that certain AI applications might affront

Trust is paramount How we achieve the tremendous benefits and opportunities AI offers while mitigating and managing associated risks will continue as a focus, as a matter of both policy and practice

Trust in AI is needed for AI to flourish over time, dering gains for humanity

If guardrails and oversight are too lax, risks may turn into actual harms that we aren’t willing to accept as a society

On the other hand, AI guardrails and oversight that is too heavy-handed and restrictive may come at the expense of AI breakthroughs that spur solutions to vexing blems, lead to astounding discoveries, and raise standards of living

With AI innovation and adoption surging ahead, the real-world value of AI is

A key unlock to realizing AI’s full mise will be to use AI itself to help mitigate and manage concerns with AI—something the private sector can advance

People modulate their behavior for different situations, self-correct when held to account, and internalize virtues that inform their decisions

Advanced AI may be able to do the same, staying within defined parameters and constraints to meet society’s expectations

As AI advances, it may be possible to architect and train AI systems not only to self-identify if the system is deviating from accepted performance, but also to self-imve to comport with a society’s goals and values. nological efforts to accomplish this are under way

Even if realized, this type of AI alignment would not entirely address core concerns

AI that supervises AI Another layer needs to emerge: AI that supervises AI

People will need to collaborate with AI agents to monitor that other AI systems do what they are supposed to do

Advanced AI agents can be developed and deployed to identify if other AI agents or deployments of AI act aberrantly or nefariously, do not behave in accordance with performance benchmarks, thwart objectives they were to mote, or pose other harms

For example, with human oversight, a company’s compliance AI agents can help ensure that the AI systems the company uses in its adhere to legal and regulatory requirements—which is impossible for humans alone to do because of the speed and scale at which a ’s advanced AI systems can operate

The volume and extent of AI uses is enormous and expanding

This presents a difficulty

For example, when using AI to market ducts, vide interactive customer support, draft agreements, or create other content, es need to confirm that what’s generated by their AI systems is compliant

But human bandwidth, on its own, will not be enough to review and assess all the uses for compliance

This capacity gap will widen as AI advances and is adopted more widely and acts more autonomously

Companies can’t fall short of their compliance obligations; nor can they unduly hesitate, let alone pass, on using AI agents in the marketplace when their competitors are actively doing so to get a strategic and operational edge

A solution is for companies to deploy AI agents to bolster compliance, augmenting human effort and judgment

AI agents’ unprecedented ability to evaluate in seconds or minutes whether AI outputs and behaviors comply with extensive legal and regulatory requirements enables the compliant adoption and implementation of AI at scale

AI should be embraced, even as we prepare for the change it brings

Risks need to be accounted for

But they should not dampen the commitment to fostering AI development and adoption

That commitment includes investment in basic and applied AI re

And it includes appriately calibrating risk management and governance that builds trust without curtailing ingenuity and innovation

Leveraging AI to help ensure that other AI systems operate beneficially and reliably—in accordance with their int purpose—would contribute to AI’s long-term mise

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com ary pieces are solely the views of their and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world

Explore this year's list.