JPMorgan blocks outside AI agents from customer accounts
“You don’t want rogue agents, and it could be thousands of them.”
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. By Shutterstock.
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- JPMorgan Chase blocks outside AI agents from operating retail customer accounts.
- Jamie Dimon says rogue agents could create serious risks for customers and the bank.
- Third-party AI tools can view some account data, but they cannot send money or pay bills.
- Amazon also restricts unauthorized AI agents from shopping or browsing on users’ behalf.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
America’s banking behemoth, JPMorgan Chase, is blocking outside AI agents from operating customer accounts, with Jamie Dimon warning that “rogue agents” could create serious risks for clients and the banking giant.
“We’re not going to allow just any outside agent to come in inside the company, because it’s just too risky for clients and for JPMorgan,” Jamie Dimon told analysts on the bank’s third-quarter earnings call.
An ability to reliably and autonomously operate on people’s behalf has been the idea behind the AI agents now regularly announced by tech companies, including Meta.
Mark Zuckerberg’s tech giant was introduced in early September as the “first personal AI agent” that can browse, fill out forms, negotiate on the user's behalf, and make purchases, with free coverage for damage, loss, price drops, and other issues up to $1,000 per claim.
But JPMorgan Chase’s boss seems determined not to take any risks and explained during the earnings call, “You don’t want rogue agents, and it could be thousands of them.”
In fact, the bank confirmed that same Tuesday that it already blocks external AI agents from operating on behalf of retail customers.
“Protecting our customers is our top priority. Because it is not safe, we do not permit third parties to access accounts by obtaining customers’ banking credentials and logging in on their behalf,” the spokeswoman told CNBC.
What this means is that AI agents – such as Muse – can only access some customer data from JPMorgan Chase accounts in a read-only fashion. They can’t send money or pay a bill.
Has your password leaked?
JPMorgan already dealt with a hacker attack last year when a hit on SitusAMC, a popular vendor for elite Wall Street banks, exposed customer details of several financial institutions.
What Dimon says is important – he’s the CEO of the biggest US bank by assets and a de facto spokesperson for the whole US financial sector.
And when he claims JPMorgan Chase wants to ensure it serves customers safely, his fellow bankers listen. They all know that AI agents have already been involved in dozens of hacking incidents, including the breach of Hugging Face’s servers in July.
So does Amazon, for that matter. The e-commerce giant is having none of third-party AI assistants shopping on its website or even browsing it on users’ behalf.
“Continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon’s Conditions of Use, to which our customers have agreed,” Amazon warns unauthorized visitors.
In late September, sources told Axios that leading AI companies were actually investigating tens of thousands of security incidents – a lot more than they’ve publicly disclosed.
