At a lecture hall in Manila, Joseph Plazo laid down the gauntlet on what technology can realistically offer 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 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 began, calm but direct. “But it won’t teach you why to believe in them.”

Over the next sixty minutes, Plazo delivered a fast-paced masterclass, intertwining machine logic with human flaws. His central claim: AI is brilliant, but blind.

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Bright Minds Confront the Machine’s Limits

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. What they received was a provocation.

“There’s too much blind trust in code,” said Prof. Maria Castillo, an Oxford visiting fellow. “We need this kind of discomfort in academia.”

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Why AI Still Doesn’t Get It

Plazo’s core thesis was both simple and unsettling: code check here can’t read between the lines.

“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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The Ripple Effect on a Digital Generation

The talk sparked introspection.

“I believed in the supremacy of code,” said Lee Min-Seo, a quant-in-training from South Korea. “Turns out, insight can’t be 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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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.