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.
As the Philippines builds its reputation as a technology hub — 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.
“Delegating decisions doesn’t absolve responsibility.”
???? **The Code Breaker Who Stopped to Ask Why**
He doesn’t throw stones from the sidelines. He shaped the system that now dominates.
Which makes his unease all the more compelling.
“What machines optimise, humans must justify.”
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 crunched numbers, not nuance.”
???? **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?**
The investment in algorithmic systems is massive, and largely unregulated.
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?”
???? **AI That Understands Stories, Not Just Signals**
Plazo isn’t calling for a retreat from technology.
He is instead building what he read more terms **“narrative-integrated AI”**—systems that 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 fear. Foresight.
Because in a world ruled by automation, the last act of leadership may simply be to ask: why?