In a packed amphitheater at the University of the Philippines, renowned AI investor Joseph Plazo laid down the gauntlet 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 revered for blending code with contrarianism.
“Machines will execute trades flawlessly,” he said with gravity. “But it won’t teach you why to believe in them.”
Over the next lecture, Plazo delivered a fast-paced masterclass, intertwining machine logic with human flaws. His central claim: AI is brilliant, but blind.
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Top Students Meet a Tough Truth
Before him sat students and faculty from a multi-nation academic alliance, gathered under a technology consortium.
Many expected a praise-filled keynote of AI's dominance. Plazo had other plans.
“There’s a rising cult of algorithmic faith,” said Prof. Maria Castillo, a respected AI ethicist from the UK. “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 website was both simple and unsettling: machines lack context.
“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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The Astronomer Analogy
He didn’t bash the machines—he put them in their place.
“AI is the vehicle—but you decide the direction,” he said. It sees—but doesn’t think.
Students pressed him on behavioral economics, to which Plazo acknowledged: “Yes, it can scan Twitter sentiment—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 quant-in-training from South Korea. “Now I see it’s judgment, not just data, that matters.”
In a post-talk panel, tech mentors agreed with his sentiment. “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 that his firm is building “symbiotic systems”—AI that pairs statistical logic with situational nuance.
“Only you can judge character,” he reminded. “Capital still requires conviction.”
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Standing Ovation, Unfinished Conversations
As Plazo exited the stage, the hall erupted. But more importantly, they started debating.
“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.