Amid the warm Manila breeze, in a university hall buzzing with intellect, tech entrepreneur and investment icon Joseph Plazo drew a bold line on what technology can realistically offer for the world of investing—and why this difference is increasingly crucial.
The air was charged with anticipation. Young scholars—some clutching notebooks, others broadcasting to friends across Asia—waited for a man both celebrated and controversial in AI circles.
“Algorithms can execute,” Plazo began, calm but direct. “It won’t tell you when not to trust them.”
Over the next sixty minutes, he took the audience from Silicon Valley to Shanghai, intertwining machine logic with human flaws. His central claim: Artificial intelligence is impressive—but it lacks soul.
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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 was both simple and unsettling: AI does not grasp nuance.
“AI won’t flinch, but neither will it foresee,” he warned. “It recognizes patterns—but ignores the power structures.”
He cited examples like the market chaos of early 2020, noting, “Machines were late to the signal. People weren’t.”
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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 analyzes—but lacks awareness.
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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The Ripple Effect on a Digital Generation
The talk left a mark.
“I thought AI could replace intuition,” said Lee click here Min-Seo, a finance student from Seoul. “Now I see it’s judgment, not just data, that matters.”
In a post-talk panel, regional leaders backed Plazo’s call. “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.
“Only you can judge character,” he reminded. “Belief isn’t programmable.”
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The Speech That Started a Thousand Debates
As Plazo exited the stage, students applauded. But more importantly, they lingered.
“I came for machine learning,” said a PhD candidate. “But I got a lesson in human insight.”
And maybe that’s the real power of AI’s limits: they force us to rediscover our own.
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