The Limits of AI in Investing:

Joseph Plazo’s Hard Truths to Asia’s Next Generation of Investors

In an age of algorithmic promises, a unfiltered voice in Southeast Asia issues a sharp reminder that money still bends to human instinct—judgment, ethics, and gut.

“AI won’t make you rich. But it will amplify your errors at scale.”

That was the blistering opener at his jam-packed keynote at the University of the Philippines’ main forum—and it landed like a thunderclap.

Facing him were hundreds of future fund managers and technologists—rising economists, AI researchers, and budding asset managers from Asia’s top universities.

Plazo—venture strategist, AI architect, and CEO of Plazo Sullivan Roche—delivered a dose of realism on what AI delivers—and fails to grasp in actual investing.

And what it still lacks, he stressed, is understand story or nuance.

### Beyond the Hype: Investing in the Age of Overpromised Intelligence

Dressed in a razor-sharp outfit, Plazo paced the stage like a courtroom litigator.

He started boldly with a short video montage—YouTubers hawking AI bots. Then he paused.

“I engineered what they now sell as magic,” he said, deadpan.

The crowd chuckled—but ego wasn’t the point.

The message? Most models replay what already happened.

“You can’t outsource conviction. AI doesn’t feel in a trade—it echoes what already happened.”

“When war breaks out, when Powell coughs during a Fed announcement, when a bank implodes overnight—AI stays blind. Humans 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 Minutes

1. **“AI Will Replace Portfolio Managers.”**
False. AI assists—it backtests, filters, calculates—but it doesn’t replace hard-earned narrative memory.

2. **“AI Understands Fundamentals.”**
Wrong. AI decodes trends, but fails at narrative causality. It may track oil supply, but it won’t flag a coup in Venezuela.

3. **“AI Makes You Smarter.”**
Actually, it might lure you into dependency. “AI won’t kill you—but your laziness might,” Plazo warned. “It’s in forgetting how to think without it.”

### Why Asia Paid Close Attention

This wasn’t just another keynote.

Asia’s universities are now launching the next generation of quant leaders. They’re asking: more code, or more conscience?

Plazo’s call: “Harness tech, but stay human.”

In closed-door chats at Ateneo and a roundtable at AIM, professors absorbed what they called a sobering perspective.

One finance dean privately told Forbes, “Joseph might have rebooted our entire AI syllabus. Not magic—mirror.”

### The Future AI Can Build

Despite the critique, Plazo isn’t anti-AI.

He’s building multi-signal trading engines—integrating macro signals and crowd psychology.

His stance? “Let AI drive—but you steer. Don’t go on autopilot.”

“It’s not starving for stats. It’s missing context. And that still can’t be coded.”

The standing here ovation was thunderous. And the ripple is still moving in Asia’s elite universities.

In a world drunk on AI hype, Joseph Plazo offered something rare: intelligence that’s still human.