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
In a packed amphitheater at the University of the Philippines, Joseph Plazo laid down the gauntlet on what AI can and cannot achieve for the future of finance—and why that distinction matters now more than ever.
You could feel the electricity in the crowd. Young scholars—some clutching notebooks, others capturing every word via livestream—waited for a man known not only as an AI visionary, but also a contrarian investor.
“Algorithms can execute,” Plazo opened with authority. “It won’t tell you when not to trust them.”
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. Plazo had other plans.
“There’s a rising cult of algorithmic faith,” 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: website AI does not grasp nuance.
“AI is fearless, but also clueless,” he warned. “It detects movements, but misses motives.”
He cited examples like AI systems freezing during the 2020 pandemic declaration, noting, “AI lagged—while humans had already hedged.”
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Wisdom in a World of Code
He didn’t bash the machines—he put them in their place.
“AI is the telescope—but you are still the astronomer,” he said. It analyzes—but lacks awareness.
Students pressed him on sentiment tracking, to which Plazo acknowledged: “Sure, it can flag Reddit anomalies—but it can’t discern hesitation in a policymaker’s tone.”
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A Mental Shift Among Asia’s Finest
The talk sparked introspection.
“I believed in the supremacy of code,” said Lee Min-Seo, a quant-in-training from South Korea. “Now I realize it also needs wisdom—and that’s the hard part.”
In a post-talk panel, faculty and entrepreneurs echoed the caution. “This generation is born with algorithmic reflexes—but instinct,” said Dr. Raymond Tan, “is not insight.”
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What’s Next? AI That Thinks in Narratives
Plazo shared that his firm is building “co-intelligence”—AI that blends pattern recognition with real-world awareness.
“No machine can tell you who to trust,” he reminded. “Judgment remains human territory.”
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An Ending That Sparked a Beginning
As Plazo exited the stage, the hall erupted. But more importantly, they stayed behind.
“I came for machine learning,” said a PhD candidate. “Instead, I got something more powerful—perspective.”
Perhaps, in drawing boundaries for AI, we expand our own.