During a speech delivered at one of Southeast Asia’s top business schools, Joseph Plazo—the founder of AI trading firm Plazo Sullivan Roche— argued that automation may have outpaced accountability.

He offered a sober reminder: faster trades are not always wiser ones.

“If you allow a machine to manage your portfolio,” he said, “ensure it reflects your priorities—not just your profit targets.”

???? **When the Code Needs a Conscience**

Mr. Plazo is not a critic from the fringe. His firm’s systems have achieved a 99% success rate across various assets and timeframes.

But that success, he suggests, carries risk.

“A well-trained model can still make perfectly logical errors.”

He cited a case during the COVID-19 pandemic when a bot under his supervision flagged a short on gold—just before the US Federal Reserve announced an intervention.

“We cancelled the trade. It failed to anticipate a shift that any seasoned investor would have questioned.”

???? **Machines Act Quickly. Humans Are Meant to Think.**

Plazo referred to what he terms **“strategic friction”**—the time it takes to think before a trade.

“Frictions allow institutional investors to consider second-order effects.”

He presented a framework his firm uses, called **Conviction Calculus**. It includes three questions:

- Does this trade align with the organisation’s ethical posture?
- Would an experienced fund manager endorse this move?
- Do we have a human at the helm, or merely a dashboard?

???? **The Ethical Gap in Asia’s Fintech Race**

Plazo’s comments come at a time of accelerating fintech growth across Asia. From Singapore to Seoul, AI-led investing is seen as both policy strategy and website capital advantage.

But as Mr. Plazo points out:

“Governance is lagging behind growth.”

In 2024, two hedge funds in Hong Kong lost billions after AI models failed to factor in geopolitical risk—a result of logic executed too quickly, and too narrowly.

“The models did what they were told. But no one asked whether they should.”

???? **The Case for Narrative-Aware AI**

Plazo remains bullish on AI’s potential—but not its current limitations.

His firm is building what he describes as **“narrative-integrated AI”**—systems that account for macro context, cultural tone, and regulatory environment, not just price and volume.

“The next phase of AI must engage with uncertainty, not ignore it.”

Investors from Tokyo and Jakarta reportedly expressed interest in these models after the speech. One regional fund manager noted:

“We need systems that understand politics, not just price movement.”

???? **Silent Errors in a World That Doesn’t Pause**

Plazo ended with a line that encapsulated his thesis:

“Flawless code may be the most dangerous tool in the wrong context.”

It was less a warning than a call to apply the same rigour to ethics as we do to execution.