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If you’re a regulator trying to protect investors from fraud, there are two ways to go about it.
One is to actually fight fraud. This is hard, and not getting easier. If you’re a Canadian securities regulator, it’s even tougher, because your authority only extends to the borders of your province or territory.
The second way to get rid of fraud is to educate people about fraud, which is arguably getting easier, because of AI and social media. That means effective market regulation may require a strong social media game.
With that in mind, the BC Securities Commission has rapidly risen to the top of our list of Canadian securities regulators — it’s a long list, there are 13 of them! — with this video on AI fraud.
The good news is that resistance may not be as futile as our new besties at the BCSC make it out to be.
As we covered in a recent Big Read about consumer fraud, there are a growing number of companies coming up with tech solutions to fight “deep-phishing,” ie the AI-enabled version of the same old email scams. Regulators and lawmakers are playing referee between consumers and their financial firms, deciding who should bear the blame when frauds inevitably happen.
But hey, judging on videos alone, we can understand why the makers of profanity-laden humorous “We’re F–ed” at BCSC are still solidly in their seats, and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Gary Gensler, whose “Office Hours” videos were dull and boring, is not.
