This could be the worst way to start an important conversation about financial technology, but stick with me, it gets more interesting. We are speaking about the world-altering technology of Artificial Intelligence as the first superpower coupled with the financial system disruptive technology of cryptocurrency — a decentralized payment system that circumvents government manipulation of currency and is forcing us to redefine the concept of money. The question is: Can these two technologies be used together to change the way ordinary people like you and me invest our money — without expiring in a shower of blue sparks? “Avada Kedavra!”
But first, let’s take a step back and look into them as individual concepts, with respect to their relationships to investment and trading.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Artificial Intelligence (AI) means software that after its initial programming continues to improve its performance based on its experience of the environment it has been set to ‘learn.’ Unlike in movies, where AI is characteristically portrayed as menacing, human-destroying droids, AI software has actually bettered our lives in fields as diverse as healthcare, education, safety, transportation, and entertainment. In the field of financial trading, AI has been clandestinely used for two decades to generate profits for hedge funds, banks, and other large trading companies.
In its early days, AI trading systems relied on human intervention to provide trade execution but since the rise of electronic exchanges, AI trading has probably changed the character of the world’s markets without the general public’s knowledge.
