Memo to chief financial officers tasked with steering a nascent artificial intelligence rollout for their companies – don’t leave ethics behind when immersing generative AI adoption plans.
That’s the message from political, consumer advocates and business leaders from leading technology companies and it’s the same message C-suite decision-makers should be giving each other as an unchained but promising AI looms ever larger on the landscape.
At a recent White House meetup, seven leading lights in the technology sector including Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI – pledged to “move toward a safe, secure, and transparent development of AI technology,” according to a White House statement.
Among the steps industry leaders pledged to make include . . .
• A commitment to internal and external security testing of their AI systems before their release. This testing, which will be carried out in part by independent experts, guards against some of the most significant sources of AI risks, such as biosecurity and cybersecurity, as well as its broader societal effects.
• A commitment to sharing information across the industry and with governments, civil society, and academia on managing AI risks. This includes best practices for safety, information on attempts to circumvent safeguards, and technical collaboration.
• Investing in cybersecurity and insider threat safeguards to protect proprietary and unreleased model weights. These model weights are the most essential part of an AI system, and the companies agree that it is vital that the model weights be released only when intended and when security risks are considered.
The commitment to robust ethics from some of the top AI developers doesn’t seem forced.
The non-binding accord between the White House and the top AI companies is strictly “voluntary” according to meeting attendee Anna Makanjju, vice-president of global affairs at OpenAI, where tech companies will “contribute specific and concrete practices” on AI regulation, compliance, and ethics.
At the CFO level, business management experts advise making any AI implementation personal especially when looking to keep artificial intelligence uses both ethical as well as practical.
“High-level value statements won’t suffice in a world where ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ can be ambiguous and the line between innovative and offensive is thin, says McKinsey in a recent “Insights” report on AI best practices.
To get the job done right in an effective and balanced way, company leaders need to “set clear-cut standards for their organizations by using examples that show how each value translates into the real-world choices that analytics teams make.”

Brian O’Connell, a former Wall Street bond trader and best-selling author, is a prominent figure in the finance industry. With a substantial background as an ex-Wall Street trader, he has authored two best-selling books: ‘The 401k Millionaire’ and ‘CNBC’s Creating Wealth’, demonstrating his profound knowledge of finance and investing.
Brian is also a finance and business writer for esteemed national platforms and publications, including CNN, TheStreet.com, CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, and Fox News.