Where AI Falls Short: A Cautionary Tale for Future Investors

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 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. “It won’t tell you when not to trust them.”

Over the next hour, he took the audience from Silicon Valley to Shanghai, touching on everything from quantum computing to cognitive bias. His central claim: Artificial intelligence is impressive—but it lacks soul.

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The Audience: Elite, Curious—and Disarmed

Before him sat students and faculty from leading institutions like Kyoto, NUS, and HKUST, gathered under a technology consortium.

Many expected a praise-filled keynote of AI's dominance. Plazo had other plans.

“There’s too much blind trust in code,” said Prof. Maria Castillo, a respected AI ethicist from the UK. “This lecture was a rare, necessary dose of skepticism.”

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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 doesn’t panic—but it doesn’t anticipate,” he warned. “It finds trends, but not intentions.”

He cited examples like machine-driven funds failing to respond to COVID news, noting, “By the time the algorithms adjusted, the humans were already positioned.”

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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: “Sure, it can flag Reddit anomalies—but it can’t feel a market’s pulse.”

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A Mental click here 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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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. “Belief isn’t programmable.”

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Standing Ovation, Unfinished Conversations

As Plazo exited the stage, the crowd rose. But more importantly, they lingered.

“I came for machine learning,” said a PhD candidate. “But I left understanding myself better.”

And maybe that’s the real power of AI’s limits: they force us to rediscover our own.

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