Goldman Sachs is experimenting with generative AI tools internally to assist its developers routinely generate and test code, the corporate’s chief information officer told CNBC.
Marco Argenti, who joined Goldman as a partner from Amazon in 2019, said Tuesday that the firm’s software engineers have been using the technology to routinely generate lines of code.
It’s currently in a “proof of concept” stage and never yet ready for production, he added.
“Developers are already using a few of the assisted coding technology,” Argenti told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal on the Goldman Sachs technology symposium on Tuesday.
Generative AI refers to a bunch of products that produce human-like text or images in response to written prompts from users.
Amongst the most well-liked examples is ChatGPT, an AI chatbot developed by Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Other competing products include Google’s Bard and Stable Diffusion, an AI-based image generator created by startup Stability AI.
Goldmans’ interest in generative AI products comes despite pushback from some banking giants on using ChatGPT internally. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America have all reportedly restricted staff from using the software.
Argenti declined to discover the generative AI products that the corporate has been using. He also didn’t specify which bank division the tech is getting used in.
ChatGPT and products prefer it could potentially radically shake up the world of economic services. AI could take the steering wheel on which investment decisions to make, for instance, or automate many customer support functions.
“It’s still very early,” Argenti conceded, although he compared the event of generative AI to “the start of the web.”
“You would not put immediately all of your most significant workloads there, however the imperative is to essentially to try to know the potential,” he added.
Goldman has invested heavily in turning the bank right into a more technology-driven company in recent times. The firm launched Marcus, a standalone digital bank focused on consumers, in 2016 and rolled it out to the U.K. in 2018.
“I have been in technology probably almost 4 a long time or so, and that is certainly one of the most important disruptions I’ve ever seen,” Argenti said. “Probably comparable to the web, apps, the cloud — it’s that order of magnitude.”
Goldman’s innovation chief stressed that AI mustn’t be considered a substitute for software developers, but more of a companion to assist them be more productive.
In some cases, developers have been able to write down as much as 40% of their code routinely using generative AI, he said. They’re using the software to each test code and generate recent one, Argenti added.
“For those who even have a GPT-like technology that tests the code, otherwise you generate the tests for the GPT code, you are creating this dualism where you test the machine and also you get the machine to check your work,” he said.
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