What AI Can’t Do: A Manila Lecture Shakes the Finance World
What AI Can’t Do: A Manila Lecture Shakes the Finance World
Blog Article
Amid the warm Manila breeze, in a university hall buzzing with intellect, renowned AI investor Joseph Plazo made a striking distinction on what AI can and cannot achieve for the world of investing—and why that distinction matters now more than ever.
You could feel the electricity in the crowd. Young scholars—some furiously taking notes, others capturing every word via livestream—waited for a man known not only as an AI visionary, but also a contrarian investor.
“Machines will execute trades flawlessly,” Plazo opened with authority. “But understanding the why—that’s still on you.”
Over the next hour, he swept across global tech frontiers, touching on everything from quantum computing to cognitive bias. His central claim: Machines are powerful, but not wise.
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The Audience: Elite, Curious—and Disarmed
Before him sat students and faculty from leading institutions like Kyoto, NUS, and HKUST, united by a shared fascination with finance and AI.
Many expected a celebration of AI's dominance. What they received was a provocation.
“There’s too much blind trust in code,” said Prof. Maria Castillo, an Oxford visiting fellow. “We need this kind of discomfort in academia.”
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The Machine’s Blindness: Plazo’s Case for Caution
Plazo’s core thesis was both simple and unsettling: AI does not grasp nuance.
“AI won’t flinch, but neither will it foresee,” he warned. “It recognizes patterns—but ignores the power structures.”
He cited examples like the market chaos of early 2020, noting, “Machines were late to the signal. People weren’t.”
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Reclaiming the Edge: Why Humans Still Matter
Plazo didn’t argue against AI—but for boundaries.
“AI is the microscope—you choose what to zoom in on,” he said. It works—but doesn’t wonder.
Students pressed him on AI in news and social chatter, to which Plazo acknowledged: “Of course, it parses language patterns—but it can’t smell fear in a boardroom.”
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Asia Reflects: From Tech Worship to Tech Wisdom
The talk hit hard.
“I thought AI could replace intuition,” said Lee Min-Seo, a finance student from Seoul. “Now I see it’s judgment, not just data, that matters.”
In a post-talk panel, regional leaders backed Plazo’s call. “These kids speak machine natively—but instinct,” said Dr. Raymond Tan, “doesn’t replace perspective.”
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The Future Isn’t Autonomous—It’s Collaborative
Plazo shared website that his firm is building “hybrid cognition models”—AI that understands not just volatility, but motive.
“Ethics can’t be outsourced to software,” he reminded. “Judgment remains human territory.”
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The Speech That Started a Thousand Debates
As Plazo exited the stage, students applauded. But more importantly, they stayed behind.
“I came for machine learning,” said a PhD candidate. “But I got a lesson in human insight.”
Perhaps, in drawing boundaries for AI, we expand our own.