steven maijoor : 2024 - an ai odyssey speech by mr steven maijoor, executive director of supervision of the netherlands bank, at the kick - off event of the impact centre " ai4 fintech ", amsterdam, 4 october 2024. * * *'i'm sorry, dave, i'm afraid i can't do that.'this heartfelt excuse is a line from a movie. a movie that came out in 1968, a year before the first human set foot on the moon. nevertheless, the movie is largely set in space. i am talking about'2001 : a space odyssey '. and that line, that excuse i just uttered, is spoken by a computer. a computer called hal - 9000. a computer that talks, that shows emotions, that says'no '. in other words : artificial intelligence. ai. in 1968. we are now well beyond 1968. even well beyond 2001. but we are still on an odyssey. an ai odyssey. not in space. but here, on this very planet, where ai is increasingly becoming a part of our everyday lives – be it professional, be it personal. as in any odyssey, we are searching for something that brings us good fortune, but probably won't come easy. something we long for, but might take a while to find. when i look at the current, broad applications of ai, i am impressed by its potential. coming from rule - based ai, and subsequently machine learning, it is clear that we have now moved to a new era – an era in which ai still counts as a great predictive force, but is now also capable of generating content, be it texts, images or videos. and soon enough, a combination of them, in multimodal ai. nevertheless. ai may indeed have become ubiquitous, we are still far from using its full potential. whether in its different forms, from machine learning to generative ai – or in its breadth of use, from society as a whole to the financial sector in particular. as supervisors, for instance, we see that financial institutions are indeed experimenting with ai – quite a lot, actually – but at the same time, we also see that those experiments are mainly happening around the fringes of their professional activities. for instance, in customer service. and that's quite far from the core financial processes. quite far from the places that have a real regulatory impact. and remarkably, if ai is indeed used

rate. the country would then probably also face difficulties in meeting the other maastricht convergence criteria, further complicating the task of economic management. if the risk of this happening is considered unacceptably large, a slower pace of fiscal consolidation, entailing a smaller risk of slippage, could be chosen. the late adoption of the euro would, however, imply that the enjoyment of the relative benefits would be postponed, and that the country could lose competitiveness if other new member states successfully adopt the euro at an earlier date. in summary, the best case scenario is the one where a relatively fast pace of fiscal consolidation is both planned and achieved. the worst case scenario is the one where fiscal policy fails to deliver on a planned fast process of consolidation. the scenario featuring a slower pace of consolidation can be described as intermediate in terms of its degree of preference. however, this could turn into a worst case scenario if fiscal policy fails to deliver even on a planned slower consolidation process. it is for these reasons that medium - term fiscal planning should be adopted, detailing concrete objectives and measures to be implemented over a number of years. it is equally important that such a programme enjoy the support of the social partners. the consensus - building approach being followed in the mcesd is a welcome, positive development in this regard, one that could facilitate an early adoption of the euro. conclusion throughout a long and, at times, turbulent history, our people have faced repeated threats to their livelihood, but our forefathers always rose to the challenge. in a commendable demonstration of courage, solidarity and vision they were able to put aside narrow political and sectoral interests and unite in the pursuit of the common good. indeed, if we are here today, in control of our destiny as a free and independent people, it is because they found the inner strength to put country first. in recognition, we justly recall their achievements with pride. the challenge we face today is no less serious than any the country has had to deal with in the past. if this generation of policy makers and policy shapers wishes to earn a similarly favourable judgement of history, they must have the courage of their convictions and lead from the front. it must be understood that we are all in the same boat. tackling our common problems means that we must fight together against inertia and embrace change in the pursuit of progress. for this alone is the key to job creation and higher living standards. in this