Wait, AI Isn’t Our Enemy, Is It?

CU Times' editor-in-chief ponders whether artificial intelligence has become a friend or foe to credit unions.

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Once many of us really clocked the term “artificial intelligence,” it was connected to the 2001 Steven Spielberg movie of the same name with the creepy robot kid, played by Haley Joel Osment. The android child just wanted to learn how to love and, spoiler, wasn’t very good at it.

Jump ahead a few years and Amazon shoppers became annoyingly aware of the uses of AI when clicking on, ordering or simply placing stuff in their cart. Oh, I see you’ve clicked on a pack of six HEPA filters for your home. Customers who buy this also like the variety pack of Burt’s Bees lip balm. Interested?

In this example, AI was and is basically used as the impulse-buying candy and magazine section at the grocery store checkout line.

Fast forward to 2023 and AI technology is absolutely all over our digital lives even if we don’t realize it.

For credit unions, AI applications have mainly taken root in lending risk assessments and chatbot programs, which eventually route members to the call center if the bot cannot answer the question(s). A program to increase efficiencies for credit union staff? Great.

Are there more sinister ways AI can be used? Of course. Just watch the end of the Spielberg movie or look at how some countries use AI to spread disinformation online.

Is AI a potential credit union savior for steady growth or is it something we could regret using down the road? That’s like asking, “Will the dumb things you did in your 20s catch up to you in your 50s?” Maybe yes, maybe no.

For instance, in January the digital media company BuzzFeed announced it will start using the ChatGPT program created by OpenAI to create content and quizzes on the site. You know you’ve clicked on those quizzes to find out who your true love might be based on what kind of cake you like.

Anyway, BuzzFeed Co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti posted the AI announcement, which said, “In 2023, you’ll see AI inspired content move from an R&D stage to part of our core business enhancing the quiz experience, informing our brainstorming, and personalizing our content for our audience. In tough economic times, we need to fight for every penny of revenue, and try to save every penny of costs.”

By the way, BuzzFeed’s stock more than doubled in value after this announcement.

What’s happening here is a little good and a little not good. The not good part is the fear-come-true that some have of robots taking their jobs – like the automobile industry panic of the 1980s when factory automation took hold. BuzzFeed has laid off writers over the past few years in anticipation of this move to AI writing and reporting.

The good part is we get to watch what happens with this journalistic (a term I’m using very loosely) experiment and potentially see how AI can progress, or not, even in our credit union space.

SIDE NOTE

To be honest, this is where I wanted to build/insert an actual BuzzFeed-type quiz for you to take. I had called the quiz “Old Mac C.U. Had a Farm A.I., A.I.O. – Which AI Farm Animal Are You?” But, I’m a writer and it was just too time consuming and I got frustrated. I’m sorry. I’ll try to figure it out on our site down the road. The idea behind the quiz, though, was to find out if you view AI as a friend or foe. Interesting experiment, I thought to myself. Just tough to pull off. Anywhos, love you all. Be well.

BACK TO THE COLUMN

To put into context how quickly this new version of AI has developed, OpenAI released its ChatGPT about three months ago. Since its release, it has been covered extensively by media outlets around the world. The ChatGPT story really had taken over the business and tech sections in all the major media places and I was truly sick of reading about it. After two months of heavy ChatGPT coverage, it was almost cute how, in early February, Google announced its new service/chatbot called Bard.

According to reporting by CNBC, Bard is a “code red” priority – meaning it’s a top priority for the company to get it rolled out for public use as fast as possible. As of this writing, it appears OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a Ferrari compared to the Ford Pinto that is Google’s Bard, according to some early comparative tests. Bard just isn’t ready yet, apparently. It appears the early AI gets the worm.

It’s reported that Microsoft is rolling out some kind of new AI product. Don’t forget Meta (Facebook’s parent company) has its own AI too.

All of this AI competition can only mean good things for credit unions, right? Right?!

For the past few years, credit unions have been doing a pretty great job incorporating AI experiences for members. Most credit unions use it to streamline processes and drive efficiencies, as mentioned earlier.

What excites me most about AI uses for credit unions comes with the automated credit underwriting solutions. These AI applications have been around for a few years now and are beginning to show real and positive progress for members. Tech-focused CUSOs are funding other tech-focused CUSOs to innovate these underwriting solutions. For instance, the Curql Collective made additional investments into Zest AI at the end of 2022 to “help credit unions gain a greater competitive edge in the lending financial services landscape.”

Zest AI CEO Mike de Vere said of the CUSO’s vision, “Our goal is to help credit unions lend with confidence. With more than 250 underwriting models, our tools also expand access to more affordable credit across credit tiers, making credit more available to those who need it.”

Nick Evens, president/CEO of Curql Collective, stated AI allows credit unions “to render more consistent and equitable lending decisions, removing bias and streamlining the decision-making process” using Zest AI. The fact is that there are a lot of AI credit union partners out there and there’s a lot of money being funneled into AI development for credit union lending efforts. This is a good thing.

It’s a little fuzzy to state that AI removes bias from decisions because these are programs written by humans to make human decisions – just really, really fast. It’s an attempt to remove personal feelings in decisions when the AI program basically states “It’s not personal, it’s just business” when declining a loan.

The way I look at AI is this: The progression of AI is incredibly useful. It’s not a replacement for humans. It can point out your credit union’s strengths and weaknesses. I just ask that you don’t name your AI things like Janet, Jack, Chrissy or Larry. That is weird and it creeps me out.

One final note: Did you know Navy Federal Credit Union submitted eight pieces of content and quizzes that were published in BuzzFeed in 2018? Me neither, but it’s there if you want to look.

Michael Ogden

Michael Ogden is editor-in-chief for CU Times. He can be reached at mogden@cutimes.com.