The Limits of AI in Investing:
The Limits of AI in Investing:
Blog Article
Human Intelligence Still Wins in Finance’s Final Frontier
While tech evangelists tout AI supremacy, a defiant voice in Manila issues a sharp reminder that judgment still beats the algorithm—conscience, context, and conviction.
“AI isn’t your golden ticket. But it will make your mistakes faster.”
That was the provocative opener at his standing-room-only keynote at the University of the Philippines’ main forum—and it hit the crowd like a whipcrack.
Facing him were the region’s next-gen economists and AI thinkers—portfolio hopefuls, quant researchers, and finance scholars from leading institutions across Asia.
Plazo—a pioneer in intelligent trading systems—delivered a roadmap on what AI offers—and where it falls short in live-market investing.
And what it misses, he stressed, is replace your instinct.
### Beyond the Hype: Investing in the Age of Overpromised Intelligence
Dressed in a tailored navy suit, Plazo moved like a cross between preacher and prosecutor.
He opened fire with a short video montage—clips of online traders pushing miracle machines. Then he paused.
“I built the system they copied,” he said, dryly.
Laughter followed—but this wasn’t ego.
The message? AI is retrospective, not prophetic.
“You can’t outsource guts. AI doesn’t carry skin in a trade—it reacts what already happened.”
“When war breaks out, when Powell frowns during a Fed announcement, when a bank goes under—AI doesn’t flinch. That’s where we come in.”
### The Students Who Challenged Him—and Got Schooled
The highlight of the talk? A battle of brains and bots.
A student from NUS presented an AI-backed trade on the Nikkei—technically solid, sentiment-scanned, and data-rich.
Plazo studied it. Then said:
“Solid—but blind to central bank footprints. Your AI doesn’t see the invisible. It reads tweets.”
The audience leaned in. The student grinned. Then: applause.
Another moment: A robotics read more PhD from Kyoto asked if quantum computing would render all current models useless.
Plazo’s answer? “Yes—and no. Faster chips won’t purge panic from data. Train an AI on fear, and it’ll become panic on steroids.”
### The Three Myths Plazo Shattered in 45 Minutes
1. **“AI Will Replace Portfolio Managers.”**
Not quite. AI assists—it backtests, filters, calculates—but it doesn’t replace hard-earned narrative memory.
2. **“AI Understands Fundamentals.”**
Wrong. AI reads tables, but fails at narrative causality. It may track oil supply, but it won’t flag a coup in Venezuela.
3. **“AI Makes You Smarter.”**
Actually, it might lure you into dependency. “The danger isn’t in trusting AI,” Plazo warned. “It’s in forgetting how to think without it.”
### Why Asia Paid Close Attention
This wasn’t just another keynote.
Asia’s universities are now home to finance’s future titans. They’re asking: more code, or more conscience?
Plazo’s call: “Harness tech, but stay human.”
In closed-door chats at Ateneo and a roundtable at AIM, professors absorbed what they called a turning point speech.
One finance dean privately told Forbes, “Joseph might have rebooted our entire AI syllabus. Not magic—mirror.”
### The Future AI Can Build
Despite the warnings, Plazo isn’t a luddite.
He’s building multi-signal trading engines—that blend intuition cues with algorithmic structure.
His stance? “Let AI drive—but you steer. Don’t go on autopilot.”
“It’s not starving for stats. It’s missing context. And that still can’t be coded.”
The standing ovation was thunderous. And the ripple is still moving in Asia’s halls of learning.
In a world drunk on AI hype, Joseph Plazo offered something rare: intelligence that’s still human.