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, tech entrepreneur and investment icon Joseph Plazo made a striking distinction 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 took the audience from Silicon Valley to Shanghai, balancing data science with real-world decision making. 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 prestigious universities across Asia, assembled under a pan-Asian finance forum.
Many expected a celebration of AI's dominance. Instead, they got a reality check.
“There’s a rising cult of algorithmic faith,” said Prof. Maria Castillo, guest faculty from Europe. “We need this kind of discomfort in academia.”
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When Algorithms Miss the Mark
Plazo’s core thesis was both simple and unsettling: code can’t read between the lines.
“AI won’t flinch, but neither will it foresee,” he warned. “It finds trends, but not intentions.”
He cited examples like the market chaos of early 2020, noting, “By the time the algorithms adjusted, the humans were already positioned.”
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Wisdom in a World of Code
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: “Yes, it can scan Twitter sentiment—but it can’t smell fear in a boardroom.”
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The Ripple Effect on a Digital Generation
The talk left a mark.
“I thought AI could replace intuition,” said Lee Min-Seo, a quant-in-training from South Korea. “Turns out, insight can’t be get more info uploaded.”
In a post-talk panel, tech mentors agreed with his sentiment. “They’ve been raised by data—but instinct,” said Dr. Raymond Tan, “is only half the story.”
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Co-Intelligence: Merging Math with Meaning
Plazo shared 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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An Ending That Sparked a Beginning
As Plazo exited the stage, students applauded. 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.