At a lecture hall in Manila, tech entrepreneur and investment icon Joseph Plazo drew a bold line on what technology can realistically offer for the world of investing—and why that distinction matters now more than ever.

The air was charged with anticipation. Young scholars—some clutching notebooks, others broadcasting to friends across Asia—waited for a man known not only as an AI visionary, but also a contrarian investor.

“Algorithms can execute,” 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: Machines are powerful, but not wise.

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The Audience: Elite, Curious—and Disarmed

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. Plazo had other plans.

“There’s a rising cult of algorithmic faith,” said Prof. Maria Castillo, an Oxford visiting fellow. “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 is fearless, but also clueless,” he warned. “It detects movements, but misses motives.”

He cited examples like AI systems freezing during the 2020 pandemic declaration, noting, “AI lagged—while humans had already hedged.”

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Wisdom in a World of Code

He didn’t bash the machines—he put them in their place.

“AI is the telescope—but you are still the astronomer,” he said. It analyzes—but lacks awareness.

Students pressed him on sentiment tracking, to which Plazo acknowledged: “Sure, it can flag Reddit anomalies—but it can’t discern hesitation in a policymaker’s tone.”

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A Mental 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. “These kids speak machine natively—but instinct,” said Dr. Raymond Tan, “doesn’t replace perspective.”

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The Future more info 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. “Capital still requires conviction.”

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Standing Ovation, Unfinished Conversations

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

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

In knowing what AI can’t do, we sharpen what we can.