For payments processors fighting a rising flood of fraud, artificial intelligence is a key weapon, according to a trade group that represents such service providers.
The American Transaction Processors Coalition has urged Congress members and staff to avoid regulating AI in any way that would hamper payments companies’ use of the evolving tool, said West Richards, the group’s executive director. That’s because payments companies will increasingly depend on AI to fight criminals who are tapping the technology for wrong-doing, he said.
The issue surfaced this week as Congress members debated the budget and spending reconciliation bill, including a provision that would have prohibited states from regulating AI for ten years. On Tuesday, that moratorium was stripped from the bill in a 99-1 Senate vote, preceding passage of the entire bill by that chamber. There is no federal regulation that is specific to artificial intelligence.
The ATPC, which represents card company American Express, payments firm Deluxe and processor Fiserv, among others, had no official position on the AI provision that was taken out of the bill, but allowing states to weigh in with AI regulation may not be what the coalition had in mind.