Commonwealth Bank of Australia names Mary-Anne Williams as chief AI scientist

May 18 (Reuters) - Commonwealth ‌Bank of ​Australia ​on Monday appointed Mary-Anne Williams as its chief AI scientist in ‌what the bank said would be ⁠the first such role at an Australian lender.

Williams ‌would join from the ‌University of New South Wales, where she serves as the deputy director of the ​varsity's AI Institute, among other roles.

CBA did not say when Williams would ⁠join.

Her expertise ranges across frontier research, global industry partnerships, robotics, ​startup advisory work, and the practical application of AI across business, government, ​and society, Australia's largest lender ‌said in a statement.

Williams, who will lead a team of AI ⁠scientists, said she will focus on improving the understanding of the societal implications of ⁠AI and supporting continued responsible AI innovation across the ​bank.

The appointment adds to the bank's broader AI investment, which includes collaborations with Anthropic, Amazon Web Services, ‌Microsoft and OpenAI.

U.S. technology and financial services firms have been hiring ‌senior AI leaders from academia amid ⁠growing emphasis on ‌frontier research expertise ​to scale AI responsibly.

(Reporting by Sherin Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank ‌Dhaniwala)

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