I’m of the view that most technology is at its essence, agnostic. Whether it is used for good or ill depends upon the intent of the user.
Similarly, Bernie Madoff, who ran the biggest Ponzi scheme in history before being outed in 2008, can also be considered a manufacturer of disinformation for his years of conning gullible investors into believing that his asset management business could generate consistent, above-average returns. Meaning that as AI improves, along with people’s ability to engage it through carefully crafted prompts, our insight into a company’s operations and management thinking could meaningfully improve. .
Meanwhile, let’s return to my earlier point that technology is agnostic. When current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler was a professor at MIT, he wrote this paper warning of the dangers of AI. Gensler warned that AI presents a double-edged sword, “providing previously unseen predictive powers enabling significant opportunities for efficiency, financial inclusion, and risk mitigation.