What AI Can’t Replace:
What AI Can’t Replace:
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 jam-packed keynote at the University of the Philippines’ amphitheater—and it drew audible gasps from the audience.
In front of him were the region’s next-gen economists and AI thinkers—portfolio hopefuls, quant researchers, and finance scholars from leading institutions across Asia.
Plazo—CEO of a firm at the intersection of AI and capital—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, matter-of-fact.
Laughter followed—but that wasn’t the punchline.
The message? Most AI is built on hindsight.
“You can’t outsource guts. AI doesn’t carry skin in a trade—it mirrors what already happened.”
“When war unexpectedly explodes, when Powell coughs during a Fed announcement, when a bank implodes overnight—AI stays blind. We 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—technically solid, sentiment-scanned, and data-rich.
Plazo nodded thoughtfully. Then said:
“Good. But you missed the BOJ’s stealth bond buy this morning. Your AI doesn’t sense the bluff. It scans headlines.”
The audience shifted. The student shrugged. 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. Infinite processing won’t fix human incentives. Train an AI on fear, and it’ll become a chaos machine.”
### The Three Myths Plazo Shattered in 45 here Minutes
1. **“AI Will Replace Portfolio Managers.”**
Not quite. AI assists—it backtests, filters, calculates—but it doesn’t replace gut instinct.
2. **“AI Understands Fundamentals.”**
Wrong. AI reads tables, but fails at narrative causality. 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 minting billion-dollar fund builders. 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 clarion call.
One finance dean shared off-record, “He just reset our compass. Not magic—mirror.”
### The Future AI Can Build
Despite the truth bombs, Plazo isn’t against innovation.
He’s building models that read psychology as well as numbers—that blend intuition cues with algorithmic structure.
His stance? “Co-pilot AI. Don’t worship it.”
“AI doesn’t need more data. It needs discernment. And that still belongs to us.”
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.