If you hold shares in Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), you've invested in some exciting, and potentially lifesaving, artificial intelligence technology.
The bank has recently implemented artificial intelligence (AI) technology designed to detect domestic and family violence.
The technology, developed in the CBA AI Labs, can recognise technology-facilitated abuse through analysing millions of transaction descriptions.
It's the latest of several methods the bank has recently employed to identify and protect victims of domestic violence.
Let's take a closer look at the CBA's initiative.
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CBA's AI technology protecting Australians from violence
Owners of CBA shares will likely be proud the bank is one of the first in Australia to use AI to detect abusive behaviour in transaction descriptions within its CommBank App and Netbank.
The new technology allows the bank to proactively identify instances of technology-facilitated abuse, a targeted form of domestic and family violence.
CBA's general manager of community and customer vulnerability, Justin Tsuei, commented on the new initiative:
Technology-facilitated abuse is a serious problem, and completely unacceptable behaviour… With this new model in place, not only are we able to proactively detect possible instances of abuse in transaction descriptions, but we can do so at an incredible scale.
The use of AI technology and machine learning techniques to help us address a serious issue like technology-facilitated abuse demonstrates how we can use innovative technology to create a safer banking experience for all customers, especially for those in vulnerable circumstances like victim-survivors of domestic and family violence.
Although CBA's new AI measures likely haven't moved the bank's share price, it's an impressive show of how technology can be used to help customers.
CBA began blocking transaction descriptions that include threatening, harassing, or abusive language last year.
Between 1 May and 31 July this year, CBA's AI filter blocked more than 100,000 transaction descriptions using offensive language.
From those transactions, the bank's AI model recognised 229 individual senders of potentially serious abuse. CBA then reviewed those senders to determine the appropriate action required.
The latest advance is part of a wider range of interventions CBA has introduced to support customers impacted by domestic and family violence.
These include delinking bank accounts so perpetrators can't send abusive transactions and setting up safe accounts for victim-survivors.
The bank is also able to send warning letters to perpetrators. Finally, in extreme cases, it will terminate a customer's banking relationship.
CBA share price snapshot
At the time of writing, the CBA share price is $104.89.
That's 27% higher than it was at the start of 2021 and 52% higher than this time last year.
Right now, CBA has a market capitalisation of around $178 billion.
