Finance leaders of the G7 grouping agreed to hold tabletop exercises to guard against AI cyber attacks, Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said.
The agreement comes after the International Monetary Fund warned this week that confidence could be undermined by an AI-enabled cyber attack on a critical service of a financial institution.
Katayama's remarks followed a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7 advanced economies held on the sidelines of the IMF's annual gathering in Bangkok.
The plan will feature simulations developed by G7 finance authorities to test how they can respond to AI-driven cyber attacks, a Japanese finance ministry official said. The results will test the effectiveness of existing protocols and be used to revise manuals to better tackle such incidents.
The exercises by G7 finance ministries and central banks could include private financial institutions depending on the nature of the simulations.
Banking regulators globally are stepping up efforts to contain growing AI risks. The Bank of England is working with banks on deep cyber-recovery options, its deputy governor said, adding that they can no longer assume their defences are immune to AI-enabled cyberattacks.