Artificial intelligence can one day upset entire industries, but among the elite of hedge funds, it is not yet a threat, said Seth Klarman, CEO of Baupost Group.
In an episode of the Podcast Value Investing With Legends of the Columbia Business School, the Titan of coverage, the Titan said that he and his colleagues used mainly nascent technology, which has assigned tasks that lower level employees may have done in the past.
“We ourselves started using it as essentially an Assistant capable, a summer trainee,” said Klarman. “Not someone who knows what actions to buy, but a way to tabulate data faster.”
Klarman cited some specific examples of how his colleagues used it.
One way was to analyze business deposits.
“He asked the AI to take a look at 10 years of annual reports for a company and to compare what has changed in the annual report from year to year – the way they communicate, what can reveal something about change in the company, or what is worried, or anything,” said Klarman.
Another was to identify the corporate logos that one of its employees had never seen who would help them better know an industry landscape.
“He would have run this to an intern, but the AI did it in five minutes and saved three days of work,” said Klarman.
Klarman also said he used AI himself, although he was not particularly impressed. Before he was ready to speak during an event with a well -known business manager, he asked a chatbot to generate questions to ask the person.
“What came back was useless,” he said. “I like to ask for things they had not thought before.”
Baupost is not the only company to use AI to increase efficiency. Morgan Stanley and Bank of America began to form staff to use technology to stimulate productivity. The Thinklinks consulting firm found in a recent study that by 2030, 44% of a bank’s tasks, including 32% of sales and negotiation work, could be “redefined” by AI.
Despite the use of technology, Klarman said he was concerned that AI could harm people’s ability to be creative. A recent MIT study argued, noting that The use of memory and brain activity reduced to AI.
“I think if we use AI in the wrong direction, we will solve the problem without having applied our brain,” said Klarman. “It would be like reading the end of a novel and not needing to really know how everything happened? So, I like to do it in order. I think the right order is:” Here is what I think “, and then I can improve my thought.”
