Paul S. Atkins is the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This post is based on his recent remarks. The views expressed in the post are those of Chairman Atkins and do not necessarily reflect those of the Securities and Exchange Commission or its staff.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I regret that contemporaneous business out of town keeps me from joining you in person today, but I would be remiss not to briefly address this group—albeit pre-recorded—and to thank you for your spirited service on behalf of American investors. I am grateful, as ever, for the thoughtfulness with which you consider the key opportunities and challenges facing them today.
Before I continue, I must note the customary disclaimer that the views I express here today are my own as Chairman and do not necessarily reflect those of the SEC as an institution or of my fellow Commissioners.
To begin, your first panel will focus on a technological frontier that holds great promise, but can also provoke real questions and concerns. To that end, the perspectives of this Committee and today’s panel participants on the burgeoning influence of Artificial Intelligence—and its possible role in corporate disclosures—are important to the Commission.
Now, while AI may help alleviate certain analytical burdens in distilling information in SEC filings, some may infer from this that the Commission has latitude to depart from its longstanding principle of materiality when prescribing disclosure requirements. I, for one, do not share that view.
