CFTC Names Dr. Ted Kaouk First Chief AI Officer

Dr. Ted Kaouk has been appointed as the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at the CFTC.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced Dr. Ted Kaouk’s appointment as Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer.

Dr. Kaouk to Lead CFTC’s Data, AI Strategy

Given that Dr. Kaouk is now the Chief Data Officer and Director of the Division of Data at the CFTC, he will be expanding his responsibilities to include supervision of the preparation and implementation of the CFTC’s comprehensive data and artificial intelligence strategy.

With this advancement, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) hopes to improve its control, surveillance, and enforcement capabilities, as well as other areas of the derivatives market in which it works.

Rostin Behnam, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, emphasized the significance of advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence in the process of developing the CFTC’s operational systems.

Dr. Kaouk’s extensive technical knowledge and previous successful leadership are essential for pushing the activities that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is undertaking at the moment, according to Chairman Behnam.

The agency expects to upgrade skill sets, cultivate a culture of data utilization, and use AI for innovation within the financial market’s rules. Before joining the CFTC, Dr. Kaouk worked for a variety of government entities in a variety of capacities.

He was the Chief Data Officer at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and he was responsible for formulating the initial human capital data strategy applicable across the entire federal government.

The United States Department of Agriculture was the first organization to use an enterprise data analytics and artificial intelligence platform, which is one of his many successes.

Additionally, Dr. Kaouk demonstrated his leadership by serving as the first Chair of the Federal Chief Data Officers Council, a position he held from its establishment in 2020 until January 2024. Dr. Kaouk’s professional journey began when he was a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy.

Subsequently, he moved on to further his education at prestigious academic institutions. He earned his undergraduate degree from the United States Naval Academy, his master’s degree from the University of Virginia, and his doctoral degree from the University of Maryland, located in College Park.

The Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Commission, under the sponsorship of Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero, has released the agenda for the next “AI Day.”

This news coincides with the announcement of Dr. Kaouk’s new post. A discussion on the responsible implementation of artificial intelligence in regulated financial services will take place at the headquarters of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in Washington, District of Columbia.

Experts in artificial intelligence from a variety of fields, including government regulators and private sector representatives, will also provide their perspectives during the day’s events.The workshops will discuss a number of significant subjects.

Sunayna Tuteja, the Chief Innovation Officer of the Federal Reserve Board, will present one of these subjects. She will discuss the role that artificial intelligence plays in promoting responsible innovation at the Federal Reserve.

She will deliver additional presentations on topics like market automation, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and the United States Treasury Department’s report on artificial intelligence in financial sector cyber security.

The goal of these discussions is to examine the application and regulation of artificial intelligence technology in the context of financial markets.

Simultaneously, the AI Day event fosters public engagement through in-person events and live webcasts accessible on Commodity Futures Trading’s official website.

Creating the basis for informed talks regarding the issues posed by artificial intelligence technologies at the intersection of technology, law and policy is the ongoing goal of the Technology Advisory Committee (TAC), which is now undertaking this work.