Andrew Bailey woke up in 2024 and figured out that artificial intelligence might make cyber attacks worse. The man runs the Bank of England. He gets paid to know this before everyone else.
Frontier AI threatens the global financial system, he says. Materially increases cyber risks. These are the words of a person who just learned what ransomware is. The Governor of the Bank of England needed a briefing to understand that smarter computers might help smarter criminals steal money faster.
Every retail trader who bought AI stocks at the top is nodding along right now. Finally, someone important confirms their thesis. They bought NVDA at $950 because they read that AI would change everything. Now the Bank of England says AI will destroy everything. Perfect. Their bags feel lighter already.
Bailey warns about global financial stability like he's the first person to think of this. Meanwhile Goldman Sachs has been running quantum-encrypted dark pools since 2019 and JP Morgan has a dedicated team that does nothing but war-game AI attack vectors. But sure, Andy, thanks for the heads up.
The best part is what happens next. Absolutely nothing. The financial system will not add a single new safeguard because of this warning. Not one bank will hire additional security staff. Not one regulator will pass meaningful legislation. Bailey will give six more speeches about the same threat. CNBC will run the story with scary graphics. Then everyone goes back to doing exactly what they were doing before.
Some guy in Nebraska with $4,000 in a Robinhood account just shorted every bank stock because the Governor said cyber risks are going up. He'll lose it all by Friday. The AI won't even need to attack the financial system. Retail traders are already doing the damage themselves.
Bailey could have sent an email, but that would have required understanding how email works.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
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