Responsibility in the Age of AI

There are moments in history that are bigger than any one company or industry. I believe the development and deployment of AI is one of them.

Its enormous potential comes with risks that are developing just as quickly as the technology itself. If we are going to innovate at speed, we need to manage the risks at speed as well. And many of those risks are simply too interconnected for any of us to manage alone.

That is why Citi is joining the expanded Alliance for Critical Infrastructure, or ACI. I will represent Citi alongside CEOs from six critical sectors, bringing together technology and AI leaders with companies responsible for the financial, telecommunications, energy, transportation, water systems and other infrastructure that our economy depends on. These are companies that compete or operate in very different industries and do not typically work together in this way. But there is growing recognition that the challenges we face cut across traditional boundaries and require us to do the same. Through ACI, we will do that to strengthen our country’s resilience and reduce systemic risk.

We have already seen why this is important. In 2024, a faulty software update disrupted airlines, hospitals, financial institutions and other essential services around the world. It wasn’t a cyberattack, but it showed how quickly a problem in one part of the system can cascade across many others.

As AI becomes more deeply embedded throughout our economy, those interdependencies will only deepen. Our defenses need to be every bit as connected. Companies building and deploying AI and those operating the infrastructure it touches have expertise to contribute, lessons to share and a common interest in getting this right. ACI gives us a way to put that responsibility into practice together.

It also builds on work already underway at Citi. You’ve heard me talk this year about preparedness. Over the summer, we brought together colleagues from all parts of the firm to test our readiness for increasingly sophisticated cyber and AI-enabled threats. That work reinforced another important lesson — resilience is built before you need it, and increasingly it is built with others.

Although ACI’s initial focus is the U.S., the infrastructure we rely on, the companies that operate it and the risks we face are global. The relationships we build and the lessons we learn here should have value well beyond the U.S.  

None of us has all the answers. But this is a moment when we can choose to work together and take responsibility for the part we can play. I’m proud Citi is stepping up and doing exactly that.