SEC Chairman Paul Atkins Highlights Innovation-Focused Approach to AI Regulation at AI Expo

On May 8, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins presented a speech at the Special Competitive Studies Project AI+ Expo, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a regulatory framework that supports innovation while preserving investor trust and market integrity.  Chair Atkins compared AI to past transformative technologies such as electronic trading systems, noting that the SEC’s role is to adapt existing frameworks to accommodate evolving technologies rather than to impede them through rigid requirements.  Instead, he emphasized the importance of appropriate oversight through principles-based frameworks.  In that context, he referenced the SEC’s approach to developments in blockchain technology as an example of how the SEC has facilitated emerging technologies through guidance, FAQs and no-action letters rather than new requirements.

Chair Atkins also underscored the importance of AI development for U.S. capital markets and financial regulation.  He noted that prescribing technology would undermine advancement and instead emphasized the SEC’s focus on its mission of protecting investors through the maintenance of fair, orderly, and efficient markets and the facilitation of capital formation.

Click here for SEC Chairman Paul Atkins’ remarks at the Special Competitive Studies Project AI+ Expo.