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AI Will Wipe Out Half the Banking Jobs In a Decade, Experts Say

Experts in the industry say that current advances in artificial intelligence and automation could replace as many as half the nation's financial services workers over the next decade, though it will take a big investment to make that happen. The Mercury News reports: "Unless banks deal with the performance issues that AI will cause for ultra-large databases, they will not be able to take the money gained by eliminating positions and spend it on the new services and products they will need in order to stay competitive," James D'Arezzo, CEO of Glendale-based Condusiv Technologies, said. Intensive hardware upgrades are often cited as an answer to the problem, but D'Arezzo said that's prohibitively expensive.

Speaking to an audience last year in Frankfurt, Germany, Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan predicted a "bonfire" of industry jobs as automation moves forward. "In our bank we have people doing work like robots," he said. "Tomorrow we will have robots behaving like people. It doesn't matter if we as a bank will participate in these changes or not, it is going to happen." Increased processing power, cloud storage and other developments are making many tasks possible that once were considered too complex for automation, according to Cryan. D'Arezzo, whose company works to improve existing software performance, said the financial industry is being swamped by "a tsunami of data," including new compliance requirements for customer privacy and constantly changing bank regulations.
Bhagwan Chowdhry, a professor of finance and economics at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, offers a less bleak view of the future. "Technology will eliminate some jobs that are repetitive and require less human judgment," he said, "But I think they will get replaced by other jobs that humans are better at. Anything that requires judgment is something humans will continue to do. We are not good at multiplying 16-digit numbers, but we're good at judging people and detecting if someone is telling the truth."

111 comments

  1. But of course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    not CEO jobs. No no.

    1. Re:But of course by HornWumpus · · Score: 0

      Is anybody surprised a CEO doesn't understand the jobs of his workers?

      On the other hand, they might be that big fat and stupid? Big old corp, Peter principle, insufficient compitition and all.

      People doing work like robots? In banking? Where? Did he forget all the money he saved in the 90s? Let me guess, German...old fashioned, still use typewriters and paper forms? Have a drummer keeping time for the mechanical adding machines. Doubt it, but don't know.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re: But of course by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      German...old fashioned, still use typewriters and paper forms?

      Like this guy?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:But of course by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Academics don't seem to know much either. From TFS: "we're good at judging people and detecting if someone is telling the truth"

      Actually, this is something that humans are notoriously bad at. Deep neural networks already exceed human ability to recognize liars, by detecting microexpressions correlated with lying.

    4. Re:But of course by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      But an AI may not be able to embrace a new realm of new business opportunities.

      Humans have the ability to take risks and even though not all risks are worth taking you have to also realize that some risks can lead to great profit and progress. If nobody was willing to take risks then we wouldn't have gone to the Moon, crossed the Atlantic or even left Africa.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    5. Re: But of course by dougdonovan · · Score: 1

      i doubt it will take that...long...

  2. Al? by Richard+Stalin · · Score: 2

    Who is Al, and why should I be afraid of him?

    1. Re:Al? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Al is a weird musician who uses polka and an accordion to parody pop songs.

    2. Re: Al? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      But I've heard you can call him Paul...

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re: Al? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alternative Investment

    4. Re:Al? by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      Are you talking about the computer security chief at Equifax?

    5. Re: Al? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Simon says you're probably thinking of that time when Clark Griswold pretended to play the trumpet with the short guy that guy who ruined Art Garfunkel's music career by leaving the band and going solo. His name escapes me though.

    6. Re:Al? by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1

      In this instance, AI probably stands for Actual Incompetence.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  3. no we are not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    There was a study about how well people know if their own kids or unknown kids are telling the truth. Result was about 50% which is about as good as random.

    People are not good at anything. Some individuals perhaps are but even that is rare.

    1. Re:no we are not by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      People are not good at anything.

      What's important is that we all believe we are better than average.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  4. "we're good at judging people" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's "good" to a bunch of psychopathic thieves that are still ripping us all off?

  5. Only if it learns COBOL by jfdavis668 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Otherwise it will never figure out how to access the data.

    1. Re:Only if it learns COBOL by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately AI will be fluent in C++ long before being able to accomodate with Cobol phrasing. These bankers thought of everything!

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    2. Re:Only if it learns COBOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If AI ever tries to understand C++ templates, it will cause the end of the world (see paperclip AI).

  6. Soon AI Blockchain Clouds will rule the world. by Mr307 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes computers will make more trades and replace some workers in the financial arena, but its not AI, its still good expert systems.

    We used to have editors that knew some tech stuff and wouldn't just spam clickbait all the time.

    1. Re:Soon AI Blockchain Clouds will rule the world. by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We used to have editors that knew some tech stuff and wouldn't just spam clickbait all the time.

      Maybe they were already replaced by some AI machinery years ago, editors have been sitting on a beach somewhere sipping Margarita's, and even us haven't been smart enough to figure it out. Good job there /., your AI gear passed the Turing test!

    2. Re:Soon AI Blockchain Clouds will rule the world. by fred911 · · Score: 2

      A trusted, decentralized, secure and liquid blockchain is something bankers (and the Fed) need to be scared of. I believe we now are seeing demonstrative examples of such systems. I also believe it's in the best interest of the banking community to either participate in, or assure these create huge losses for current participants, securing their job stability. The last thing bankers want to deal with is having to pony up (and not earn from) their float.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    3. Re:Soon AI Blockchain Clouds will rule the world. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      AI is the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. AI exists. As far as I know, there are no self-aware computers though. I'm wondering if half the people commenting on /. are confusing AI with self-awareness or similar.

    4. Re:Soon AI Blockchain Clouds will rule the world. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      its not AI, its still good expert systems.

      No. This is completely wrong. "Expert systems" consist of structured and nested "if this do that" tables hand crafted by programmers querying human subject matter experts. Artificial neural networks can accept unstructured data, and find the patterns and correlations on their own. They are completely opposite approaches.

      The revolution in trading is happening because of ANNs, not "expert systems".

    5. Re:Soon AI Blockchain Clouds will rule the world. by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
      I think you will find ATM machines and online banking have already replaced most of the useful people, mostly leaving the zombies and psychopaths.

      What is proposed here is dumping the zombies.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    6. Re:Soon AI Blockchain Clouds will rule the world. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, they aren't. There is a structure there, often imposed by filtering the data or its sampling characteristics before the AI gets to see it.

    7. Re:Soon AI Blockchain Clouds will rule the world. by q_e_t · · Score: 1
      Not all ANNs cope with unstructured data. In fact most types don't, and it use various levels of preprocessing and selection. But then various 'AI' techniques achieve various things, such as clustering or classification, some of which can be achieved with statistical techniques. Back in the day when memory was at more of a premium you might use principal component analysis, a statistical technique, to do dimensionality reduction. We use Gestalt feature extraction, and graphs for image recognition at least fifteen years ago, and FaceBook seems to be doing something similar

      A lot of AI now has familiar features from then: graphs, clustering, TVP, MLP, arity, in memory distributed processing. It is tempting to get back into it.

    8. Re:Soon AI Blockchain Clouds will rule the world. by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      'AI' techniques achieve various things, such as clustering or classification

      Which is exactly what ANN's and "Deep Learning" do, and nothing more.
      If the developers like to pretend that there is something
      biological about their programs, fine. Whatever floats your boat.

    9. Re:Soon AI Blockchain Clouds will rule the world. by q_e_t · · Score: 1

      It isn't pretending, as there is, or was, some biomimicry there, although some techniques have somewhat diverged. The issue is still often reasoning about the behaviour, i.e. rule extraction, and the assurance it can give you over and above validation and test sets. Just creating those effectively, along with training sets, is a difficult enough statistical problem, especially where you are also incorporating some expert gold standard.

  7. Says the Scientologist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Condusiv is Diskeeper the Scientology company that made news a while back.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condusiv_Technologies#Controversy

  8. But how many jobs will this AI create? by greenwow · · Score: 2

    I've been a customer of NCNB which later became Bank of America for over forty-five years, and they just keep creating policies that require more employees. For example, I used their bill pay to transfer money to another BoA account for over a decade but since then they've discontinued that I have to go to a branch and get a teller every month to pay my rent. Also, I used to transfer money to several friends that have BoA accounts, but they since discontinued that feature since they require a credit card to sign-up for "SafePass" and they canceled my credit card due to the fact I didn't use it enough. So now rather than just being able to transfer the money online, I have to go to one of their branches and deal with a bank teller. I really miss being able to use my iPhone to transfer money, for example, to pay back a friend when they pay for a meal with their credit card. BoA just keeps creating more work for their tellers.

    1. Re:But how many jobs will this AI create? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Bank of America owns or leases over 4,600 locations the last I heard including a building I own 15% of. I think they're just trying to justify that huge cost by reducing the number of features you can do with their web page or with their iPhone app. I know I can no longer do bill pay to several vendors that I used to pay online that also had BoA accounts. I have to now go to a location and do a transfer. It just sucks when I didn't have to go to them for five+ years, but now I have to go to my local branch sevens times a month now.

    2. Re:But how many jobs will this AI create? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      With BoA reducing features online with desktop web pages and with their mobile app, it seems like they're doing the opposite of trying to reduce the number of employees. Maybe other banks are using AI to reduce their number of employees, but Bank of America is increasing the demand for their local employees by removing features from their web site and mobile app.

    3. Re: But how many jobs will this AI create? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bank of Americaâ(TM)s main focus seems to be creating more work. I was able to transfer money with their website for over seven years, but now I have to go to one of their locations to do that.

    4. Re:But how many jobs will this AI create? by Kjella · · Score: 4, Informative

      So now rather than just being able to transfer the money online, I have to go to one of their branches and deal with a bank teller. I really miss being able to use my iPhone to transfer money, for example, to pay back a friend when they pay for a meal with their credit card. BoA just keeps creating more work for their tellers.

      And they let you do that without fees? That's how they killed real world banking here in Norway, if you want to pay a bill in cash expect to be charged >$10 in fees for each. About $8 if you've got an account. By mail $0.25. Online, nothing. So 91% of all age 16-79 pay their bills online. Another overview I found suggests 97% by volume. Bank offices are closing left and right or they're going "cashless" with ATMs/deposit/exchange machines and just financial advisers, the people don't touch the money. Traditional tellers are almost extinct here.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    5. Re: But how many jobs will this AI create? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think SafePass was created just to create local jobs. Sucks have to drive to a BoA branch a couple of times a month to transfer money. I didnâ(TM)t have to do that ten years ago!

    6. Re:But how many jobs will this AI create? by fred911 · · Score: 1

      If you trust your money with BOA, you are a fool. They're full blown criminals who enjoy toying with their clients money and trust. When they're caught they figure the fine was cheap enough... rinse, dry and repeat.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    7. Re:But how many jobs will this AI create? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Real AI? Real AI would figure out that you need to transfer money to your vendors, and how much, and just do it for you.

    8. Re:But how many jobs will this AI create? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is there *any* reason you have to (or want to) stick with BoA? Find a better bank, or even a credit union, most of which are moving the (customer-appreciated) opposite direction.

    9. Re:But how many jobs will this AI create? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've transferred balances, paid bills, and scheduled payments with my BoA accounts all in the past WEEK. I don't know what's preventing you from doing those things, but it isn't BoA.

    10. Re:But how many jobs will this AI create? by jopsen · · Score: 2

      America is so far behind it's hard to comprehend... I just recently moved back to Denmark from San Francisco, and trying to cash a check from my former landlord is basically impossible. I remember cashing a Canadian check 5-6 years ago, but today banks won't touch checks.

      In the US, however, most online bill-pay systems are just web frontends for sending a physical check by mail. I remember the teller explaining this to me, and laughed because I thought he was joking. It's a pretty stark difference, in Denmark physical letters is barely a thing (no private company or public entity sends me physical mail -- unless it's an extraordinary situation).

    11. Re: But how many jobs will this AI create? by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      If bank tellers were, or will be, replaced - it's not because of AI, it's because of ATMs and internet banking. Dumb computing. As the comments have explained.

      The kind of employees under threat now provide "financial services" that only people with large accounts have to worry about. When automation starts hitting *this* class hard, is when we can expect serious attempts by government and also our corporate dictators to address the problem. So, within the next decade they say? Probably more like three or four decades IMO - organizational inertia.

    12. Re:But how many jobs will this AI create? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      America is so far behind it's hard to comprehend... I just recently moved back to Denmark from San Francisco, and trying to cash a check from my former landlord is basically impossible.

      Losing an ability is not progress. Perhaps that is why you find a country which is behind, but has more services and abilities so hard to comprehend.

    13. Re:But how many jobs will this AI create? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I have to go to a branch and get a teller every month to pay my rent.

      What is a branch? Or a teller?

      My bank actively discourages ever visiting them. 5EUR every time you want to talk to a teller. And really there is zero reason to ever talk to a teller in this age.

    14. Re:But how many jobs will this AI create? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like you don't have enough common sense to change the bank you do business with, there are many out there than can handle those tasks. Why do you stick with a bank that is reducing it's usefulness to you.

    15. Re:But how many jobs will this AI create? by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      I really miss being able to use my iPhone to transfer money, for example, to pay back a friend when they pay for a meal

      What bastards, forcing you to use BofA even though they suck.

      If only you had more choice, like you would in a "free market".
      Of course, that's just a fantasy.

    16. Re: But how many jobs will this AI create? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoa! If I couldn't transfer money online with the bank I was using it would not be of any more use to me. It sounds like you need to move to a different bank, sir.

  9. All that is left is to teach AI by bobstreo · · Score: 1

    how to embezzle, make predatory mortgage loans, and to utilize the stock market to make high frequency trades to conceal their loses,

    Maybe evicting some single mothers and shutting down some orphanages would also be in order. /s?

  10. Judgment by mentil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    we're good at judging people and detecting if someone is telling the truth.

    Hahaha, no. Experienced detectives trying to tell if someone is lying in response to a yes/no question, using their gut instincts, do no better than a coin flip. Also, remember this story posted just a few days ago: multiple forged signatures, and no investigation done before $Millions were already forked over to the scammers. Think about all the stories of scammers who use social engineering to convince corporate officers to wire them $Millions. OTOH, AI (ok, algorithms) has been used in automated fraud detection systems for decades.

    Besides, technology being ABLE to replace half of workers is very different from those workers actually being replaced. Many banks are led by conservatives, and won't rush out to replace half their workforce; they'll slooowwwwllllyyy roll it out in test markets for a decade first, maybe waiting for several competitors to announce plans to do so first. Remember how long it took to roll out EMV in the USA? We didn't even get 'chip & PIN', just 'chip & signature'... oh and they got rid of the signature requirement so it's just 'chip' now.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re:Judgment by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      The EMV thing was because of liability. CC issuers make money on fraud, so they have an incentive not to do anything to prevent it.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    2. Re:Judgment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, it is a funny argument in the face of "lie-detectors" already being a thing.

      Also, don't underestimate the urge to get rid of employees and replacing them with something cheaper even if it's substandard. Look at the outsourcing in the IT business for instance. I'm quite certain the banks would accept a significant increase in frauds and other losses if they could get rid of their employees in the process - it would still be cheaper.

    3. Re:Judgment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      we're good at judging people and detecting if someone is telling the truth.

      Hahaha, no. Experienced detectives trying to tell if someone is lying in response to a yes/no question, using their gut instincts, do no better than a coin flip.

      I think you are confused. The trick is asking different questions, looking for contradicting answers, and deciding where to focus follow up questions.

      Source: Anyone who's ever been grilled by their SO when getting home too late. There's a bit more strategy to catching a lie than a coin flip, or I have a bridge to sell you.

    4. Re:Judgment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The EMV thing was because of liability. CC issuers make money on fraud, so they have an incentive not to do anything to prevent it.

      CC issuers are liable for fraud, in the US. Unauthorized transactions are money the issuer has to eat, plain and simple.

    5. Re:Judgment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only banks don't do that. If you're not smelling exactly right, they will just decline doing business with you - unless they feel they can get away with ripping you off.

  11. haha! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    For someone who works in a LARGE bank. Let me just say this
    BWAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaHAHAHAHAHA.

    The one I work at is using software that EOL'd 5 years ago. This is a mainline program. They are just starting to replace it. There are thousands of programs like that. The supposition here is new unveted software is going to replace everyone. The banking industry lives and breaths microsoft excel. All of their internal software imitates that program in some way.

    HAHA my catcpa is tableau

  12. As did ATMs -- not! by davecb · · Score: 2

    The introduction of Automatic Teller Machines led to an increase in human tellers, as well as business.

    --
    davecb@spamcop.net
    1. Re:As did ATMs -- not! by Jahta · · Score: 1

      The introduction of Automatic Teller Machines led to an increase in human tellers, as well as business.

      I don't know where you do your banking, but where I live ATMs have dramatically reduced the number of human tellers. Personal customers are pushed to use ATMs for both withdrawals and lodgments; even inside bank branches. To see a human teller you have to either be a business (with a significant cash turnover) or a high net-worth personal customer (that the bank wants to keep sweet).

    2. Re:As did ATMs -- not! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The introduction of Automatic Teller Machines led to an increase in human tellers, as well as business.

      No, it didn't. The banks chose to open more branch offices at that time, because they wanted more physical presence. That increase in human tellers would have come whether or not they added ATMs into the mix.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  13. Re:Trump won't be banking from prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump has as much chance of going to prison as Hillary.

  14. "requires judgement" - fat chance by morkk · · Score: 1

    Bhagwan Chowdhry, [snip] Anything that requires judgment is something humans will continue to do.
    He is so wrong. The people owning the AIs won't care about careful or correct judgement - it won't affect them; c.f. the RoboDebt scandal in Australia (an automated mailing of demand notices to welfare recipients where the algorithm was wrong and the notices weren't vetted before dispatch)

  15. The other half will be ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... working on the fucking AI shit.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  16. Thank god by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More time to spend at home with the kids. Bring on our robot servants! Glad the revolution is in my lifetime.

  17. You think they like their job by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    Their quality of life shall improve... even if laying on a beach broke somewhere.... They will be happier, even if they dont it yet.

    --
    [($)]
  18. I'm worried by Humbubba · · Score: 1

    AI has the potential to make the dishonest and sleazy practices that led to the Great Recession of 2008 look bush-league, bring about a worldwide economic crisis the likes of which has never been seen - and yet still make the banksters rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

  19. The real problem.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Intellegence and job tasks preferances are not evenly distrubuted among people.

    Lower intellegent people can't quickly retrain new skills nor do they like to; if they did, the would have done it to get ahead already.

    You can't expect to take low IQ people and retrain them for new more complex tasks AI can't do. Even if they can be trainned for it, they may not like the amount of brain power or stress it takes to do these jobs.

    Even some high IQ people like work to be dumb and simple so they can focus on other parts of their lives.

    The idea that rebotic work is unenjoyable doesn't understand what people like. People have rituals we do all the time and we don't think of them as robotic. It is all about the meaning of the work. Anything if proving to have meaning can be rewarding for someone.

    PS,
    Most humans suck at telling if someone is lying. That's why we lie alot, because it works.

  20. Bull... by VeryFluffyBunny · · Score: 1

    "...we're good at judging people and detecting if someone is telling the truth."

    No we're not. How do you think so many scammers, con-artists, and ponzy-schemes do so well? It's precisely because we're so bad at judging people and detecting if someone is telling the truth.

    --
    Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
  21. "The Brain Center at Whipple's" by davidwr · · Score: 1

    Rod Sterling saw this in a different form half a century ago.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  22. Um, this is cheap clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On the cusp of JP Morgan Chase phasing out all human tellers, let's publish a scare piece for an industry that can't afford to change much.

  23. Those same "conservatives" had no trouble by rsilvergun · · Score: 3, Insightful

    shifting nearly all tech work overseas in less than 10 years. I watched it happen overnight. I lived through it (and the constant layoffs). Banking executives are only "conservative" in the sense they don't like paying taxes. They're plenty progressive when it comes to saving money. Remember, we've structured their pay around stock price, and the best way to raise stock price is to have fewer employees. That's why everytime the economy tanks there's mass layoffs to bump the stock. This'll be the same thing, only this time the jobs aren't going overseas, they're just gone.

    We're about to head into another industrial revolution. The last few had decades of unemployment, wars and social strife before tech (and the New Deal) caught up and people were employed again. If you're going to do something to avert the next upheaval now's the time to start voting people into office that'll address the problem with something other than more "conservative" tax cuts for bank executives.

    Or don't. I'm getting up there in the years and won't make it past 55 with my health problems (and I'm a /.er posting on a Friday night, so you can bet I don't have kids). So what do I care?

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Those same "conservatives" had no trouble by mentil · · Score: 2

      Many of these conservative banks don't consider tech to be a core aspect of their business, any more than office supplies are. Thus it makes sense to outsource the tech stuff as much as possible. What banking is traditionally 'about' is relationships: talking to a client in a room, and selling them a financial service that will probably be eventually profitable for the bank. If there's an existing relationship it might be done over the phone, maybe with some paperwork faxed; but it's still pretty clear there's a person on the other end.

      Now, investment banking, especially the parts that deal with high-speed trading, are absolutely about tech. But traditionally (during Glass-Steagal) these two operations were separated.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    2. Re:Those same "conservatives" had no trouble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most big companies are extremely liberal and fund all manner of liberal causes and agendas. The fact is that Liberalism is about the permenant welfare state, so the more people the companies can replace with h1B immigrants and offshoring, the bigger they can make the welfare state. So they help foreign aliens steal what jobs remain to keep americans on welfare.

      We should stop all immigration if we wanted to hand the ass to these billionaire elites because this is how they are killing off the citizen middle class in America. Since we need strong families to have a stable country, we need MUCH bigger tax cuts for middle class families with children, tax rates should be at 50% with no children and with 10 should go down to 5%. Children should also be required to support their parents in their old age (10% of income should go to retirement fund for parents) so that people have a reason to have children.

    3. Re: Those same "conservatives" had no trouble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All very reasonable long-term policies. But you know what?

      The psychos who run the show will cry wolf if you try to implement them. They want to make a quick buck and if that means selling your land to medieval Arabs, they will do it. See Merkel and Soros.

    4. Re:Those same "conservatives" had no trouble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You seem to be ascribing views to what you call liberals that do not match their beliefs. You are creating a strawman.

    5. Re:Those same "conservatives" had no trouble by antdude · · Score: 1

      Just like me. :/

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  24. Yeah... No... by oic0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I work in a credit union. 90% of our jobs are customer facing for people who want to talk with a human instead of using the website or an ATM. There is very little back office. You have loan underwriters, title clerk's, IT, mail, and accounting. All small departments. Big stuff are call centers, tellers, FSRs, etc...

    1. Re:Yeah... No... by mjwx · · Score: 1

      I work in a credit union. 90% of our jobs are customer facing for people who want to talk with a human instead of using the website or an ATM. There is very little back office. You have loan underwriters, title clerk's, IT, mail, and accounting. All small departments. Big stuff are call centers, tellers, FSRs, etc...

      You're thinking of "banking" as just the front end stuff. Those jobs aren't under threat from AI.

      Perhaps if we used the technical term "Financial Services" that you'll realise the customer facing part is actually a very small number of jobs, call centres included. The majority of jobs are underwriters, assessors, clerks, so on and so forth and its these jobs that will be replaced by AI because these jobs are what AI is good at, taking large sets of data and applying rules to them which is basically what a human already does when you make a claim or apply for a loan.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  25. Circular reasoning? by superposed · · Score: 1

    Unless banks deal with the performance issues that AI will cause for ultra-large databases, they will not be able to take the money gained by eliminating positions and spend it on the new services and products they will need in order to stay competitive. . . . Intensive hardware upgrades are often cited as an answer to the problem, but D'Arezzo said that's prohibitively expensive

    So banks will switch to AI for all the savings, but there won't be any savings? Then why switch to AI? And if there are savings from switching to AI, then what's the problem? What is this actually saying?

    Maybe I can setup an AI that can post AI articles: "Most jobs in the ----- sector will be eliminated in the next 10 years according to AI experts. Companies in the ----- sector must be ready to innovate or they will get left behind. Workers will also need to retrain or be left in the lurch."

  26. Re: Trump won't be banking from prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How did Trump get into this thread?

  27. Sure once banks are moral by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bankers are one step up from entry-level employees who are disposable and used as the fall guys for banks illegal and unwritten policies. Banks are going to have to change bigly.

  28. Re: Can AI wipeout fake jews running banks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm Jewish. I'm apparently not getting my invitations to the super secret world domination meetings. I feel left out. Could there be a problem with the mailing list?

  29. Re:Can AI wipeout fake jews running banks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't pass the test by hating Jewish people or anyone else for that matter.

  30. Neither people or AI are needed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Banks shouldn't require people or AI except for maintenance of their systems. Neither should be involved in actual banking transactions. Banking transactions are a specific thing state change based on a purposefully done action. When people (bankers) are involved, mistakes happen. This requires more people to provided support. Remove the people and you no longer need people.

    Why AI? What exactly can this do? Fraud prevention? Maybe? It won't be any good at it since it can't see outside the system. The only way to prevent fraud is through multi factor authentication systems.

    Oh... so we don't need banks. We are practically already a cashless economy. In the end it is barter with paper (not gonna last) or subtract and add some numbers in a computer.

    I guess this pretty much leaves us with a either a state funded centralized system or an open decentralized system. Either way it should be dirt cheap to support and a lot more secure as well as less error prone then the existing systems. In fact I don't think I have interacted with an employee or other related person of a bank in over 10 years. Yet I still have multiple bank accounts I use on a daily basis.

  31. Bringing in H1Bs to take jobs that remain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bhagwan Chowdhry himself is a part of the problem with the H1B program seeking take the high skilled jobs that remain from Americans, feeding the brain drain in India at the same time. The democratic party needs to create a permanent captive welfare state most of all to implement its totalitarian schemes, we have to make sure these jobs do not go to Americans or that too many Americans lift themselves out of poverty.

  32. AL who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    AL sounds like a scary guy.

  33. Bull shit by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    they're all over blockchain and their executives sit on the board of directors of major Wallstreet companies that live by High Frequency Trading (which, rather annoyingly, is a modern marvel of engineering). They've long since learned that tech good. They don't understand it (they're really just members of the ruling class like kings of old) but that doesn't mean they don't know it's valuable. Just like kings knew metal weapons & armor were valuable.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  34. Kiss my bott by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Experts say experts are shitty at predicting the future.

  35. Nothing But Trouble: Bankers by cstacy · · Score: 1
  36. And the bankers? by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    Will it not wipe out the bankers? One can only hope.

  37. Don't worry! by LordHighExecutioner · · Score: 1

    Deutsche Bank will be wiped away by the next forthcoming derivative crisis, well before they can ever set up an AI system to replace financial workers.

    1. Re:Don't worry! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All of the European Union's bank will be wiped away, and a merging will be force with the now most powerful US banks. All of the Western economy will be in the hands of less than half a dozen players, and in the end only 3 at most. The transition will be marked by widespread outrage at the end of the EU's economic independence but in the face of a crisis that is going to throw the vast majority of the population into abject poverty. But don't worry too much, the next two decades will be too steeped into global warfare and rapid collapse of civilization to care too much about the economy. Losses will be very high but since tomorrow's society does not need that many citizen-consumers, it's not that big of a problem. Unless you're among the 99%, of course.

  38. It's happening already. by Qbertino · · Score: 1

    I've met bankers with a salary less than a dump truck driver. Once the bots have all the corners of beancounting squared away there is no need to keep an expensive suit around. Same with lawyers. I know of quite a few that barely get by.

    I see the same in our space. The classic Type A software developer is on the way out. It's developer+key-account-manager+devops/admin these days. That's what I'm doing right now. Part time. With a salary that's still enough to live and more responsibility than ever. And still it's also easyer and more fun than ever.
    One company I regularly visit on meetups is so agile they basically have everyone doing everything at some point in time.

    Thus is the new age of bots and abundance. Get used to it. It's going to be for the better. Eventually that is.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:It's happening already. by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      I've met bankers with a salary less than a dump truck driver.

      Actually, unionized dump truck drivers do pretty well for salary and have excellent benefits.

  39. white noise? by alex4747 · · Score: 1

    Will collecting more information simply create white noise that will drawn AI-bots pretty soon?

  40. Good! by DaMattster · · Score: 1

    I know this might be seen as trolling but I see banking as the root of much of the world's problems. So, an out of work banker might not be such a bad thing after all. Banks do all sorts of slimy shit in the name of making money.

  41. Not worried for the humans. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Artificial Intelligence will never be a match for Natural Stupidity. The best software interface is often most easily broken by a small child or a spastic, aggravated old person.

  42. Re:Can AI wipeout fake jews running banks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What test is that? The one YOU pass with flying colors for being a SOYBOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTSvLKY7HEk/ ?

  43. Re: Can AI wipeout fake jews running banks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Life has screwed you twice then since you are also clearly a SOYBOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?... and yes you do in SHULE.

  44. couldn't happen to a more appropriate group of by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    wankers.

  45. Re: Can AI wipeout fake jews running banks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cute Jewish girl break your heart sonny?

  46. There are no cute ones with those beaks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cute's impossible for wicked witch beak/snout real shicksas who just pack those suitcase sized things chock full of coke or heroin all day long 8 balls galore and you? Forget about women SOYBOY! You're almost already one, bitch tits and all! Bisphenol A is your ticket!

  47. Oh No by Grady+Martin · · Score: 1

    First the lawyers and now the bankers? Artificial intelligence is ruining our world.

  48. Which is it? by bib1620 · · Score: 0

    The heading says "will", the body says "could", which is it? Someone needs to take a basic English course.

  49. HI should wipe out the other half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Human intelligence might do well to wipe out the other half.

    Do away with the oppressive, wasteful and environmentally-harmful money-and-exchange-based economy - we deserve better.

  50. Well, this is completely wrong. by xski · · Score: 1
    "We are not good at multiplying 16-digit numbers, but we're good at judging people and detecting if someone is telling the truth."

    No, we really aren't. In fact, we're quite bad at this.

  51. BIG RED FLAG!!! by martinfb · · Score: 1

    Remember the recent Wells Fargo crimes of fraud and gouging of clients w/ loans.
    Now, imagine WF getting away with it in the future via blaming an error in the AI system.
    We, the people still loose. WF gets away with it.

    It seems a major no-brainer to have severe regulations on ANY AI being developed.

    --


    Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
  52. The remaining jobs... by redbaritone · · Score: 1

    ...will be COBOL programmers.