The Limits of AI in Investing:
The Limits of AI in Investing:
Blog Article
A Wake-Up Call from Manila’s Leading AI Strategist
While tech evangelists tout AI supremacy, a defiant voice in the Philippines’ capital reminds us what money still listens to—judgment, ethics, and gut.
“Artificial intelligence won’t hand you fortune. But it will accelerate your losses.”
That was Joseph Plazo’s blistering opener at his jam-packed 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—unveiled a truth-filled lecture on what AI offers—and where it falls short in live-market investing.
And what it can’t do, he stressed, is understand story or nuance.
### Beyond the Hype: Investing in the Age of Overpromised Intelligence
Dressed in a razor-sharp outfit, Plazo paced the stage like a courtroom litigator.
He began the teardown with a short video montage—YouTubers hawking AI bots. Then he paused.
“I engineered what they now sell as magic,” he said, deadpan.
The crowd chuckled—but ego wasn’t the point.
The message? AI is retrospective, not prophetic.
“You can’t outsource conviction. 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 implodes overnight—AI stays blind. Humans do.”
### The Students Who Challenged Him—and Got Schooled
The jaw-dropper? A live AI-vs-human trading duel.
A student from NUS presented an AI-backed trade on the Nikkei—equipped with indicators, trends, and sentiment metrics.
Plazo nodded thoughtfully. Then said:
“Looks clean, but what about Japan’s unannounced intervention?. Your AI doesn’t see the invisible. It reads tweets.”
The audience murmured. The student bowed slightly. Then: applause.
Another moment: A robotics PhD from Kyoto asked if quantum computing would render all current models useless.
Plazo’s answer? “Yes—and no. Quantum speed won’t erase flawed logic. Train an AI on fear, and it’ll become hysteria with processing power.”
### The Three Myths Plazo Shattered in 45 Minutes
1. **“AI Will Replace Portfolio Managers.”**
Nope. AI supports—it crunches, optimizes, and speeds up decisions—but it doesn’t see through fog-of-war events.
2. **“AI Understands Fundamentals.”**
Wrong. AI interprets numbers, read more but can’t see through diplomatic posturing. It may model interest rates, but it can’t predict a Strait of Hormuz conflict.
3. **“AI Makes You Smarter.”**
Actually, it might weaken your edge. “The real risk isn’t AI itself,” Plazo warned. “It’s deskilling ourselves at scale.”
### Why Asia Paid Close Attention
This wasn’t a TED-style pep talk.
Asia’s universities are now launching the next generation of quant leaders. They’re asking: more code, or more conscience?
Plazo’s call: “Code, but think critically.”
In closed-door chats at Ateneo and a roundtable at AIM, professors debated what they called a sobering perspective.
One finance dean remarked candidly, “Joseph might have rebooted our entire AI syllabus. Not magic—mirror.”
### The Future AI Can Build
Despite the critique, Plazo isn’t anti-AI.
He’s building multi-signal trading engines—integrating macro signals and crowd psychology.
His stance? “Ride with it. Don’t go on autopilot.”
“It’s not starving for stats. It’s missing context. And that still can’t be coded.”
The applause echoed across campuses. 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.