
Former SEC commissioner and AI CEO: An AI-enabled future is inspiring, but it takes planning and work
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Trust in AI is needed for AI to flourish over time, delivering gains for humanity.
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August 20, 2025
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Fortune
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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
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