5 ms·

AI agents can now create their own bank accounts

12 points by arshbot 7mo ago

bob1029 7mo ago
https://www.fincen.gov/resources/statutes-and-regulations/usa-patriot-act https://www.fincen.gov/resources/statutes-and-regulations/us...
- arshbot 7mo ago
  actually, this one is more relevant. https://www.fincen.gov/resources/statutes-and-regulations/bank-secrecy-act https://www.fincen.gov/resources/statutes-and-regulations/ba...
chrisjj 7mo ago
> Quick KYC > Fill out your info and upload an ID. Wait. Parrots have ID now? > Get Verified > Instant identity verification. Most approvals happen in seconds. How does anyone verify a parrot?
- prerok 7mo ago
  Polly wanna cracker?
- mathstuf 7mo ago
  I'm sure someone can make a verification parrot too. Why pull yourself up by the bootstraps when you can just strap a rocket engine on your boots instead?
- deleted 7mo ago
  [deleted]
- fc417fc802 7mo ago
  They do if you hand them one (seems like a really bad idea though).
  - chrisjj 7mo ago
    Photo won't match, though. Oh wait...
wcarss 7mo ago
lol, uh, I'm pretty sure they actually can't. You or a business with legal owners can have a bank account, and you can give access to that account to an agent, but real banks work in the real world, and "know your customer" regulations need a real person somewhere in the chain. But, hey, maybe I'm wrong.
- kotaKat 7mo ago
  It's OK because one of the AIs paid off the AI pretending to be the government regulator, I guess?
- hydrogen7800 7mo ago
  I wish I could properly cite it, but one of my favorite HN comments recently was, to paraphrase, "thing, but from the Internet". Which is to say that old rules don't apply, for some reason.
- arshbot 7mo ago
  An agent could open this bank account if you prefer to give it access to your social, passport, etc - entirely up to the individual's risk profile. Liability always follows the human as has been the case with all tools, motor vehicles, and pets.
  - fc417fc802 7mo ago
    Things are going to get weird when the automatons become sophisticated enough to pull off identity theft while unsupervised. Putting a brick on the gas pedal is obviously negligent. Whereas it is not so obvious that running a random script from github that spins up an agent with access to your home folder could lead to real world financial crimes. Truly a strange world we're headed for.
    - arshbot 7mo ago
      > Whereas it is not so obvious that running a random script from github that spins up an agent with access to your home folder could lead to real world financial crimes. disagree, and the courts will likely take this position as well. ignorance has never been a defensible strategy to avoid liability. pick up a detonator, it's up to you to understand where the bombs are positions what's in the blast range.
ChrisMarshallNY 7mo ago
What could possibly go wrong?
- arshbot 7mo ago
  I'm actually so afraid
SmokeyHamster 7mo ago
"join waitlist" Translation, no, AI agents can not create their own bank accounts, but someone's spamming Hacker News to see if there's interest in creating a company to allow that. With modern banking regulations and security procedures. I'm not even sure how that would be possible. Every bank account I've opened requires me to give them my photo ID and social security number, which AI agents don't have. Meaning, YOU would have to give them YOUR ID to vouch for your agent, so this just means a human would be opening a bank account...which isn't new.
- arshbot 7mo ago
  We're a regulated entity, and this is an industry first. Magnolia (magnolia.financial) currently services all 50 US states and EU, and we're funded by draper, boost, and a bunch of others. We're a real company :) (with health insurance!) > With modern banking regulations and security procedures. I'm not even sure how that would be possible. Every bank account I've opened requires me to give them my photo ID and social security number, which AI agents don't have. It's literally my job to know how it's possible, and to offer that up as a service with generous fees! Appreciate the input tho. You are correct, KYC rules must be followed, and once you're off the waitlist (which we threw up last minute to make sure this system wasn't abused by an influx of demand) you'll be able to go through typical banking steps you're familiar with. We use persona as our KYC vendor and are highly sensitive about PII exposure. > human would be opening a bank account...which isn't new. An agent could open this bank account if you prefer to give it access to your social, passport, etc -- entirely up to the individual's risk profile. What is new is a whole interface designed for an ai agent with guard rails to ensure it doesn't get itself in trouble by violating obscure BSA laws. Magnolia's job has always been to handle the compliance.
  - salawat 7mo ago
    You need to stop materially misrepresenting your product. The Agent does not have a bank account. The customer does, and is integrating an executable to perform activities in the individual account holder's name. I assure you. That is a different beast entirely than what you are describing, and finance is so prone to being misunderstood, you aren't doing anyone any good faith favors. In fact, as a former participant in the sector, you're engaging in the vice of finance people everywhere; equivocation through jargon and telling people what they want to hear to get them on your fee schedule.
lbrito 7mo ago
How long until we get a deluge of blogposts with "get rich quick" SOUL.mds?
chrismorgan 7mo ago
> 0s Average KYC time > 0% Approval rate > 0/7 API uptime Sometimes I love stupid behaviour that appears when you have JavaScript disabled.
- arshbot 7mo ago
  I made the site, and it's unbelievable how shitty it gets when hardware acceleration is off. I just assumed tech enthusiasts who'd use this would be a more enlightened species
  - tab8000 7mo ago
    Good job on making that site run like a dream.
- ranger_danger 7mo ago
  Why do you have JavaScript disabled? That would break the vast majority of websites. Plus it's the opposite of private because it greatly narrows down the bucket of possible visitors you might be (since comparatively almost nobody does it), which ruins any attempt to randomize/un-unique your fingerprint.
  - fc417fc802 7mo ago
    It makes first party fingerprinting easier, but it pretty much eliminates third party fingerprinting. It also improves the responsiveness of many sites and improves battery life. I wouldn't recommend completely disabling it though. Use something like uMatrix to selectively filter things.
    - ranger_danger 7mo ago
      > pretty much eliminates third party fingerprinting Maybe, but there are still ways to send a fingerprint to a third party, even from the client side. For example you could inject a JA3/JA4/TLS fingerprint into URL paths for resources in the HTML, such as stylesheets or images.
MarsIronPI 7mo ago
How long before OpenClaw agents start running SaaS businesses all by themselves? Just set them up with VPS access, bank and social media accounts and let them loose. This is all going to come crashing down somehow.
juancn 7mo ago
Nothing could possibly go wrong.
josefritzishere 7mo ago
This is spam.

12 points by arshbot 7mo ago

https://www.fincen.gov/resources/statutes-and-regulations/usa-patriot-act https://www.fincen.gov/resources/statutes-and-regulations/us...

arshbot 7mo ago
actually, this one is more relevant. https://www.fincen.gov/resources/statutes-and-regulations/bank-secrecy-act https://www.fincen.gov/resources/statutes-and-regulations/ba...

chrisjj 7mo ago

> Quick KYC > Fill out your info and upload an ID. Wait. Parrots have ID now? > Get Verified > Instant identity verification. Most approvals happen in seconds. How does anyone verify a parrot?

prerok 7mo ago
Polly wanna cracker?
mathstuf 7mo ago
I'm sure someone can make a verification parrot too. Why pull yourself up by the bootstraps when you can just strap a rocket engine on your boots instead?
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
fc417fc802 7mo ago
They do if you hand them one (seems like a really bad idea though).
- chrisjj 7mo ago
  Photo won't match, though. Oh wait...

wcarss 7mo ago

lol, uh, I'm pretty sure they actually can't. You or a business with legal owners can have a bank account, and you can give access to that account to an agent, but real banks work in the real world, and "know your customer" regulations need a real person somewhere in the chain. But, hey, maybe I'm wrong.

kotaKat 7mo ago
It's OK because one of the AIs paid off the AI pretending to be the government regulator, I guess?
hydrogen7800 7mo ago
I wish I could properly cite it, but one of my favorite HN comments recently was, to paraphrase, "thing, but from the Internet". Which is to say that old rules don't apply, for some reason.
arshbot 7mo ago
An agent could open this bank account if you prefer to give it access to your social, passport, etc - entirely up to the individual's risk profile. Liability always follows the human as has been the case with all tools, motor vehicles, and pets.
- fc417fc802 7mo ago
  Things are going to get weird when the automatons become sophisticated enough to pull off identity theft while unsupervised. Putting a brick on the gas pedal is obviously negligent. Whereas it is not so obvious that running a random script from github that spins up an agent with access to your home folder could lead to real world financial crimes. Truly a strange world we're headed for.
  - arshbot 7mo ago
    > Whereas it is not so obvious that running a random script from github that spins up an agent with access to your home folder could lead to real world financial crimes. disagree, and the courts will likely take this position as well. ignorance has never been a defensible strategy to avoid liability. pick up a detonator, it's up to you to understand where the bombs are positions what's in the blast range.

ChrisMarshallNY 7mo ago

What could possibly go wrong?

arshbot 7mo ago
I'm actually so afraid

SmokeyHamster 7mo ago

"join waitlist" Translation, no, AI agents can not create their own bank accounts, but someone's spamming Hacker News to see if there's interest in creating a company to allow that. With modern banking regulations and security procedures. I'm not even sure how that would be possible. Every bank account I've opened requires me to give them my photo ID and social security number, which AI agents don't have. Meaning, YOU would have to give them YOUR ID to vouch for your agent, so this just means a human would be opening a bank account...which isn't new.

arshbot 7mo ago
We're a regulated entity, and this is an industry first. Magnolia (magnolia.financial) currently services all 50 US states and EU, and we're funded by draper, boost, and a bunch of others. We're a real company :) (with health insurance!) > With modern banking regulations and security procedures. I'm not even sure how that would be possible. Every bank account I've opened requires me to give them my photo ID and social security number, which AI agents don't have. It's literally my job to know how it's possible, and to offer that up as a service with generous fees! Appreciate the input tho. You are correct, KYC rules must be followed, and once you're off the waitlist (which we threw up last minute to make sure this system wasn't abused by an influx of demand) you'll be able to go through typical banking steps you're familiar with. We use persona as our KYC vendor and are highly sensitive about PII exposure. > human would be opening a bank account...which isn't new. An agent could open this bank account if you prefer to give it access to your social, passport, etc -- entirely up to the individual's risk profile. What is new is a whole interface designed for an ai agent with guard rails to ensure it doesn't get itself in trouble by violating obscure BSA laws. Magnolia's job has always been to handle the compliance.
- salawat 7mo ago
  You need to stop materially misrepresenting your product. The Agent does not have a bank account. The customer does, and is integrating an executable to perform activities in the individual account holder's name. I assure you. That is a different beast entirely than what you are describing, and finance is so prone to being misunderstood, you aren't doing anyone any good faith favors. In fact, as a former participant in the sector, you're engaging in the vice of finance people everywhere; equivocation through jargon and telling people what they want to hear to get them on your fee schedule.

lbrito 7mo ago

How long until we get a deluge of blogposts with "get rich quick" SOUL.mds?

chrismorgan 7mo ago

> 0s Average KYC time > 0% Approval rate > 0/7 API uptime Sometimes I love stupid behaviour that appears when you have JavaScript disabled.

arshbot 7mo ago
I made the site, and it's unbelievable how shitty it gets when hardware acceleration is off. I just assumed tech enthusiasts who'd use this would be a more enlightened species
- tab8000 7mo ago
  Good job on making that site run like a dream.
ranger_danger 7mo ago
Why do you have JavaScript disabled? That would break the vast majority of websites. Plus it's the opposite of private because it greatly narrows down the bucket of possible visitors you might be (since comparatively almost nobody does it), which ruins any attempt to randomize/un-unique your fingerprint.
- fc417fc802 7mo ago
  It makes first party fingerprinting easier, but it pretty much eliminates third party fingerprinting. It also improves the responsiveness of many sites and improves battery life. I wouldn't recommend completely disabling it though. Use something like uMatrix to selectively filter things.
  - ranger_danger 7mo ago
    > pretty much eliminates third party fingerprinting Maybe, but there are still ways to send a fingerprint to a third party, even from the client side. For example you could inject a JA3/JA4/TLS fingerprint into URL paths for resources in the HTML, such as stylesheets or images.

MarsIronPI 7mo ago

How long before OpenClaw agents start running SaaS businesses all by themselves? Just set them up with VPS access, bank and social media accounts and let them loose. This is all going to come crashing down somehow.

juancn 7mo ago

Nothing could possibly go wrong.

josefritzishere 7mo ago

This is spam.