“Automated Finance and the Ethics It Leaves Behind”
“Automated Finance and the Ethics It Leaves Behind”
Blog Article
Before an audience poised to inherit the markets, Joseph Plazo—AI investor and founder of Plazo Sullivan Roche Capital—chose to talk not about growth, but governance.
MANILA — the atmosphere inside AIM’s lecture hall was not electric, but charged—with thought.
Plazo, a man whose trading systems are trusted by institutional investors across continents and have posted near-perfect results in volatile markets, did not arrive to dazzle.
“If you hand your financial future to a machine,” he began, “ensure it reflects your principles—not just your targets.”
???? **When the Innovator Becomes the Interrogator**
Unlike many critics of AI, Plazo is not an outsider. He shaped the system that now dominates.
Which makes his unease all the more compelling.
“Optimisation is a tool, not a compass.”
He referenced an early pandemic incident: an AI under his firm flagged a short trade on gold—right before central bank intervention reversed market expectations.
“We stopped it. It lacked the ability to see the moment.”
???? **Delay Isn’t a Bug. It’s a Human Feature.**
Plazo warned against the growing cultural obsession with speed—particularly in finance.
“Machines may win milliseconds. But humans protect meaning.”
He introduced a three-question model he calls **Conviction Calculus**—a checklist not for technical performance, but for ethical clarity:
- Is this consistent with how we want to be remembered?
- Does this decision consider factors machines miss—public mood, historical echoes, lived experience?
- Who takes responsibility if the outcome is devastating, but the logic was perfect?
???? **In a Region Racing Ahead, Who’s Asking the Difficult Questions?**
Across Asia, AI and fintech are racing ahead—with minimal restraint.
Plazo asked a harder question: “We’re expanding capacity, not responsibility.”
AI models executed flawlessly—right into catastrophe.
“The systems are functional—but are they wise?”
???? **Trading Tools That Can Read the World, Not Just the Market**
Plazo isn’t calling for a retreat from technology.
He is instead building what he terms **“narrative-integrated AI”**—systems that more info assess not just numbers, but context, tone, and geopolitical undercurrents.
“A good algorithm predicts price. A better one understands pattern. The best? Purpose.”
The idea drew immediate attention.
One called the model:
“A desperately needed alternative to automation without conscience.”
???? **Final Line: The Crash That Won’t Be Loud**
Plazo closed with a sentence that now circles boardrooms like a quiet echo:
“It won’t come from fear. It will come from code—unquestioned, unchallenged.”
Not a prophecy of doom—but a call for discernment.
Because systems move money. But only people carry the weight of consequences.