The First Annual Academic Conference of the SAIFS
From May 31 to June 1, 2024, the first annual academic conference of the Shanghai AI-Finance School was held at the Science Hall of on Putuo campus at East China Normal University. A total of 18 top scholars and industrial experts from the fields of artificial intelligence, finance, and interdisciplinary areas gathered from 4 continents. The conference focused on the topic of "Dialogue between AI and the Financial World," emphasizing three themes: "The Integration of AI and Financial Technology," "Large Language Models and Finance," and "A Global Perspective on AI Ethics and Governance." The event featured 15 keynote speeches and 3 roundtable forums, offering an intellectual feast with insights and industry trends, exploring innovative development trajectories, and providing a rich academic experience for the participants.
Prof. Desheng Yin hosted the session on "The Integration of AI and Financial Technology".
Prof. Qiang Yang
Prof. Jianqing Fan
Prof. Chengqi Zhang
Prof. Yilei Shao
The first session on "The Integration of AI and Financial Technology" was hosted by Prof. Desheng Yin, the Dean of the School of Economics and Management at ECNU, and the selected talent in the national leading talent program in China. The keynote speakers included Prof, Qiang Yang, the emeritus professor from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the Chief AI Officer at Shenzhen Qianhai WeBank Co., Ltd.; Prof. Jianqing Fan, professor at Princeton University, a Fellow of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, China and the Royal Flemish Academy in Belgium; Prof. Chengqi Zhang, the Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Technology Sydney and Chairman of the Australian AI Council; and Prof. Yilei Shao, Dean of the Shanghai AI-Finance School at ECNU. Their topics covered “AI、LLM and Federated Learning in Finance”, “Unearthing Financial Statement Fraud: Insights from News Coverage Analysis”, “Generative Artificial Intelligence: Profound Impacts on AI Research and the Financial Industry”, and “The Path to Financial Intelligence”, followed by a roundtable forum on "AI and Controlling Financial Systemic Risk", moderated by Prof. Yilei Shao, with contributions from Mr. Guoqiang Han, the Party Secretary and President of the Shanghai Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, and other keynote speakers. The discussions covered the application of AI technology in finance, systemic risk and regulation, innovative financial laboratory construction, and industry-academia-research cooperation.
The Forum on "AI and Controlling Financial Systemic Risk"
The participants agreed that generative AI is a disruptive technological breakthrough, and the rapid evolution of AI technology brings unprecedented opportunities and challenges to the financial industry. The deep integration of AI and finance can enhance the efficiency and quality of financial services. In some financial scenarios, the general large models need to be fine-tuned with professional knowledge and established using federated learning technology to build local models. The financial sector, with its low-risk tolerance, requires enhanced risk management in intelligent finance, implementing bidirectional regulation between AI and finance to better promote innovation and development in intelligent finance. The establishment of the SAIFS takes significant responsibilities, requiring deeper school-enterprise collaboration and industry-academia-research cooperation to drive the application of research results and serve the construction of Shanghai's "Five Centers".
Prof. Aocheng Tang hosted the session "Large Language Models and Finance".
Prof. Dacheng Tao
Dr. Peng Zhang
Mr. Chenhan Wang
Prof. Han Ding
The "Large Language Models and Finance" session was hosted by Assistant Professor Aocheng Tang from the School of Economics and Management at ECNU. The Keynote speakers included Prof. Dacheng Tao, professor at Nanyang Technological University, the Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and Foreign Member of the European Academy of Sciences; Dr. Peng Zhang, the CEO of Zhipu AI; Mr. Chenhan Wang, the founder and CEO of OpenBayes and the Secretary General of the CLUE Benchmarks; and Prof. Han Ding, professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Their speeches addressed the “Complex but Different, Great Truths are Always Simple”, “The Big Model and the Road to AGI”, “Why We Need the Benchmarking of FinLLM”, and “Research Judgment for Robot’s Future Technology”. A roundtable forum on "The Present and Future of the Large Language Models in Finance" was also held after that, co-hosted by Prof. Yuan Xie, the Chair Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Mr. Junlin Wang, the Assistant Researcher at the SAIFS.
The Forum on "The Present and Future of the Large Language Models in Finance"
Participants noted the urgent need for high-quality, large-scale knowledge graphs and a deep understanding of large-scale data in AI development. In the post-ChatGPT era, the rapid growth of large models is apparent, yet the selection of models should be scenario-specific rather than simply larger. AI, as a technological tool, must integrate with application scenarios and collaborate with academia and the entire industry chain to better empower various industries. The financial sector, due to its economic value, low tolerance for errors, and high rigor, is among the areas with the highest data acquisition costs, data barriers, and data mobility costs. The development of financial large models must balance scale, efficiency, and trustworthiness, with a focus on risk management and close industry-academia-research integration to provide more precise and efficient services, promoting high-quality economic and social development.
Prof. Qiqi Gao hosted the session "A Global Perspective on AI Ethics and Governance"
Prof. Shijun Tong
Prof. Guanjun Wu
Mr. Brian Tse
The session, “A Global Perspective on AI Ethics and Governance", was hosted by Prof. Qiqi Gao, Dean of the Political Science Institute and AI and Big Data Index Institute at East China University of Political Science and Law. The keynote speakers included Prof. Shijun Tong, professor of philosophy at ECNU, Chancellor of NYU Shanghai, and a Foreign Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters; Prof. Guanjun Wu, the Dean of the School of Political Science and International Relations at ECNU; and Mr. Brian Tse, the Policy Affiliate at the Centre for the Governance of AI, Oxford University and the Founder and CEO of Concordia AI. Their speeches discussed “Kant’s Four Questions in the Age of AI”, “From Sora to Metaverses: Rethinking the Process of Worlding”, and “The Safety and Governance of Frontier Foundation Models”. A roundtable forum on "Responsible AI—Ethics and Governance of Large Language Models” was also held after that with the contributions of Prof. Max Tegmark, the President of the Future of Life Institute at MIT.
The Forum on the "Responsible AI--Ethics and Governance of Large Language Models"
Participants emphasized that humanity faces not only ecological evolution but also digital evolution. The future trajectory of AI is full of uncertainties, with associated risks increasing with AI's proliferation. The current era is determined by our actions today. Humanity must learn to work synergistically with AI and coexist harmoniously, adopting a bottom-line thinking approach, calling on the international community to collectively define "intolerable" AI risks and delineate "safety red lines," and establishing a more equitable global AI governance system to ensure AI better serves humanity, leading human-machine relationships towards a safe, trustworthy, and reliable future.
This annual conference was hosted by East China Normal University and undertaken by the Shanghai AI-Finance School and the School of Economics and Management at ECNU, with co-organized by the Academic of Humanities and Social Sciences at ECNU and Shanghai Finance Institute. It is also the 27th forum in the ECNU’s interdisciplinary series - the Interdisciplinary Integration Forum. The event received strong support from the exclusive conference partner, the Shanghai Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China. The conference horizontally covered the fields of AI and finance and vertically integrated academia and industry, showcasing the academic cohesion and influence of the newly established SAIFS in the AI finance field, providing a platform for in-depth exchange and cooperation among scholars and industry representatives from home and abroad, exploring new opportunities for AI finance development, and promoting a bright future for AI finance.
Sources: ECNU;
Shanghai AI-Finance School, ECNU;
School of Economics and Management, ECNU
