Beat you Bot: Building your moat against AI!

As the AI buzz has carried markets and unsettled businesses, with the threat of disruption, the threat of personal disruption also looks. We are being told that AI is coming for our jobs, and for me, that threat became real when I learned of a bot in my name that had read and listened everything that I have ever written or said. In this session, I look at where the AI threat is greatest (mechanical, rule-driven and objective) and what we can do to keep the threat at bay - broaden our horizons, strengthen reasoning skills, work on our weak sides and let our minds wander.
Blog post: aswathdamodara...
P.S: During the session, I mentioned Galileo sitting under the apple tree. I meant to say Newton... I am sure my Bot would not have made that mistake.

[@fletch0515]

Your niche is your passion for teaching and ability to measure risk when valuing companies. Working with computers most of my life computers will never be able to feel and build an emotional relationship with humans. Thank you for 40 years of teaching us.

[@gangadharannedunghat1843]

Thank you Prof.Damodaran for yet another thought provoking presentation. One small clarification - though Galileo hugely contributed to our understanding of Gravity, Sir Newton is credited with propounding the Universal law of gravitation after an apple fell on his head.

[@fabiogiacomosantomauro8910]

Damodaran Bot would not have mistaken this one 😂

[@surani1948]

With Damodaran Bot as your assistant & your brain/intellect power you will do much, much better than you already do. Great time to look forward to this bot & use it to come up with great ideas, story telling as well as teaching methods. Looking forward to this. As always a fantastic thought provoking presentation & thank you very much. As a not so good mathematician I thoroughly enjoyed your last two books & will constantly refer to them in my investing journey. Keep up excellent & very generous work you are doing 🙏🙏🙏

[@DilipDeo2105]

Astounding philosophy and a little bit scary too. Thanks professor.

[@Ruben_Mdln]

Fantastic video! small note: it was Newton, not Galileo, who is famously linked to the apple falling incident that led to theories concerning gravity.

[@AswathDamodaranonValuation]

Yikes. You are right. I meant to say Newton, but Galileo somehow stepped in. My bot would never have made that mistake!

[@sethulakshmanan]

@@AswathDamodaranonValuation: On the contrary, this might be a good strategy to make your bot hallucinate and come up with inaccurate results

[@safetyfirst2417]

That's how I realized that the session was run by a bot. They fed it with Damodaran's data but forgot to load it up with fairy tales about apples and gravity.

[@rdas072]

This is one of the best videos that you've posted Prof. A much needed nudge. 🙏

[@MlleNnCo]

Oh wow I am looking forward to hear about the Damodaran Bot results. Thanks professor, as always, incredibly insightful. Edit: the need for more Renaissance minds / generalists in our generation- so powerful

[@Pradeep_Kumar18]

No Drama, no exaggeration, Pure knowledege, Thank you Professor!!!

[@msg3415]

Thank you Professor for sharing this in such a timely manner! Be well.

[@eurostockoption]

when everybody become a specialist, being a generalist is the moat

[@walkingphilosopher]

Plot twist. This video was brought to you by AI. Joking aside, thank you Prof. Damodaran for your kind public service in making this valuable video public. You are a great economist and teacher.

[@georgestreng]

Plot Twist: This was not Prof Damodaran speaking and giving this informative lecture but the Damodaran bot!

[@francescojacini8480]

no it was really prof Damodaran himself, otherwise there would not have been the mistake of confusing Newton's apple falling from the tree with Galileo!

[@ashwynfonseca]

An apple falling on Galileo's head?..... definitely the Damodaran Bot at work! ;-)

[@scottiebumich]

I love all your lectures. However comma The urban legend is that it was Newton sitting by the apple tree

[@ashwinsrk1]

Interesting video, filled with nuanced insights, as always. And echo your views on the whole generalist vs specialist topic. Recently, I've consciously been trying to avoid using app-based maps, after my dad pointed out the need for me to improve on spatial awareness. It makes me wonder if our recent ancestors were right about being averse to technology. Interesting times ahead. Wish there was a time machine to glimpse the far-future world at different time intervals. Thank you for the video! Do keep us posted on how the bot performs. Good day!

[@parekhd123]

Amazing video and thoughts, Prof. Damodaran! Not sure how much context, macro/micro econ and other generalist expertise you have embedded in your work would be captured by the bot! I believe your generalist skillsets combined with your curiosity combined with your hunger for learning even at this age is something your bot will never be able to catch up with!

[@Minimal_Engine]

Sir, my utmost respect and gratitude for sharing your thoughts with us so publicly. "Some people get rich studying artificial intelligence. Me, I make money studying natural stupidity." - Carl Icahn. As long as there are enough people blindly believing output generated by a computer, there are more than enough possibilities for a contrarian mind to get ahead in life...

[@BansalRajeshkumarPatel]

There’s a bot with your name coming for you - Such a thought provoking sentence and session. Thank you sir❤

[@TheGsinghg]

thank you for this amazing video Prof. D. This is the highest form of public service that you have done! Takeaways: 1. We need to expand depth and breadth in what ever we do or like to do. 2. Transform into a FULL-STACK VALUE CREATOR, nut just a software developer or a sales guy. The Duomo architect you mentioned went full-stack (in its truest sense) to transform art into an engineering marvel. Opinions: 1. AI bots are not coming after us, they are enabling us to take the next big leap. We need to do that as well and guess what, transforming from an entry level to a senior in a new field has never been easier. 2. Take breaks. Enjoy life. The risk we are worrying hard to account for is pointless if we do not enjoy the rewards of present. Find a balance. Your Sincerely. G

[@rexiioper6920]

Your take aways and opinions contradict each other.

[@TheGsinghg]

@@rexiioper6920 why not! Take-aways are what I am leaving with. Opinions are my thoughts on this.

[@PRINCIPLES_7]

Thank you so much for this video Professor!

[@luispacheco9683]

Fantastic reflection! Thank you.

[@ChloeCortez-s8x]

Notifications on for your channel

[@bhuvanajagarapu7977]

Thank you this gave me of lot insights of AI🙏

[@tanbir2358]

00:09 AI disruption in businesses and personal lives 02:26 Concerns about AI bot's ability to value companies 07:01 AI struggles more with unpredictable and adaptable behaviors. 09:22 Objectivity in appraisals is often compromised by human bias. 13:57 Importance of being a Renaissance person in today's world 16:24 Balance logic and storytelling to stay ahead of AI. 20:11 Analogies in investing based on different reactions to snow shoveling 22:15 Facing valuation challenges and considering risks 26:20 Specialization limits reasoning powers and free time. 28:14 Strategies against AI 32:08 Discovering humanity is key to beating AI.

[@pedrofervale]

Thank you for the insightful video. I would add that bias can arise not only from the computer code inserted by programmers (e.g., the moderation layer) but also from the selection of biased training data used to train the algorithm.

[@ama_true]

Fantastic thoughts! Thanks for sharing. I especially agree with the generalist topic and the importance of the empty mind! I can agree that going on a long walk in the forest and leaving my phone at home always brings me joy and new ideas 😊 PS. Confusing Galilei and Newton is proof enough that this video has not been created by an AI

[@GeoffDUB10]

No idea why this line always sticks with me "or the most part. I understand that I am too old to exercise without stretching first or eat a heaping plate of cheese fries and not suffer heartburn, but that does not stop me from trying occasionally." TY Professor you are a diamond in the........

[@BambeiMishuiGamzhu]

A great illustration of the red queen effect. You've mentionned how we're getting too specialists, and that our reasonning skills atrophied because of Google, social media, the smartphone. What if AI was precisely the kick in the a** that we needed in order to get back into the horse and improve as humans?

[@yklim4699]

Tks for sharing your great insight. I believe being a storytelling means that one should extend and exercise one's imagination far beyond what AI with existing data can reason or infer. The articulation of one's imagination is how we have E=MC2 from Einstein, E-commerce and cloud computing from Jeff Bezos. As a investor, I think if we can better appreciate and evaluate Start-Up and Young-Growth companies (mentioned in your new Corporate Lifecycle book) that venture into new markets which AI has no existing data to learn from, we should still be leading ahead of AI. PS： It is good to walk with your dog after meal so that you have less glucose spike by using your leg muscle and perhaps exercising your brain power by wandering your ideas. Happy Walking and happy thinking

[@RamonFernandez-tr8vf]

In my opinion, as long as the robot is an inanimate object, that is, dead, it is impossible for it to come even close to being a human. To have intelligence, you have to be alive. Nothing dead can be intelligent. It is a bit more sophisticated than a washing machine or vacuum cleaner. Thank you very much for your reflections and greetings, professor.

[@leroyjenkins5679]

I will be actively waiting for Damodaran bot results. I wonder how it will handle the correction in understandings and assumptions that you openly admit and correct.

[@bharatchandran6584]

well making the apple fall on Galileo was a great way to slow down damodaran bot . It surely is a strategy to think on .

[@jakubcerny6325]

The goat has returned

[@ilarums]

@Ashwath Damodaran: Irrespective of the Damodaran bot beating your best student or failing it doesn't matter, I don't think valuation of companies is logical process with clear defined rules, I agree that there are a host of quantitative measures that you can use to value companies. But valuation is more than just a quantitative measure, I think when you or other great investors value companies and place a bet on them, they look at lot of other facts and information that is very nuanced to their unique insights and I don't know if there will ever be a bot that can replicate you or the other great investors.

[@oshribenmoshe7662]

Thank you, Professor. I Very appreciate your insights, although regarding the AI storyteller, i believe there may be a misunderstanding about the AI revolution. You seem to view AI primarily as an advanced arithmetic machine, but its true impact lies in its remarkable ability to tell stories, often surpassing its role as a mere number-cruncher. This is particularly concerning because AI is increasingly encroaching on areas traditionally considered human specialties.

[@FireEverLiving]

LLMs are terrible with numbers, so my guess is that the bot will write a very *believable* story, and its ability to predict the future will be so-so, but it'll translate the story into numbers very poorly.

[@akshatrastogi9063]

Now that you have made this video prof., the bot will know what you are upto 😀

[@belalsager9247]

😂

[@Matthew-us2ys]

next video: Beat Your Human: Building Your Moat Against Humanity

[@GFDeMartino]

In relation to the disruption at a personal level which got you to make this video, maybe the case is not as terrifying as you expect. I am no AI expert but I like to think that, in actuality, AI might turn out to be the tool which helps preserve your work of genius in the long term and transmits it to the future.

[@josephlombardo1267]

LLMs are general specialists, i.e. they can be specialized in everything, not sure how being superficially knowledgeable of everything can be better. As far as moats, legalities such as patents are already a thing so I don't see it as a far-fetched aspect at all. About biases instead we need to decide whether they're positive or negative but even more importantly whether we're fully aware of them. AIs could help us become fully aware of our biases allowing us to become even better. If you can't beat your enemy, use them!

[@prajwalmeshram7690]

Specialization is for insects. - Naval Ravikant

[@EkShunya]

can we have a look an the code of damodaran bot ?

[@khabib1]

I just took some time to test out this page and not as impressive as the people who created it claims. I put some stock name and ask to analyze that and basically get some reference of your book about how to analyze that. Perhaps a way to draw people to their page only?

[@Stephen_T_Sampson]

What about going to outer space, all the new technology, there is so many you can't say them all in one sitting. AI is heroes technology. Compare today to super long ago 1950's, life is so much better nowadays.

[@FullLengthInterstates]

non compliance is why companies will hold off on automation for as long as possible. As long as there is a seperate legal entity (the employee), the company can always profit from shortcuts while blaming the employee. AI will take all our jobs when AI companies delete all disclaimers and take full responsibility for their product.

[@Mri881]

Sir one dought what about the ai which is used by jimmy simons ?

[@davidreichert9392]

To be honest, given that one day you will retire and no longer giving us all the wonderful things you give us, I'll be grateful for the AI version of you.

[@samuel.andermatt]

My prediction is the bot makes a lot of very intelligent sounding statements, but under closer scrutiny, many things, especially numbers, dont work out.

[@Tential1]

I'll keep betting on ai like a drunken sailor until people like aswath figure it out. Until then. So many ai related stocks are free money. Nvidia is still cheap, and there are a ton of its related suppliers which are too.

[@orlando7448]

if the bot were truly capable of learning it would see this video and try to out-generalize you and learn storytelling from the infinite amount of source material available on the internet. We only have one clear advantage over bots and it’s that we are humans created from other humans.

[@Josephus_vanDenElzen]

13:30

[@Josephus_vanDenElzen]

His point about not being able to have an intellectual discussion with "highly educated" specialists outside their expertise seems accurate in my experience as well; moreover, I have noted that it is almost even looked down upon by many such people. "Why would one waste time over that, if it is not a marketable skill?!" kzbin.info/www/bejne/gInFaIKnZpijoLM In this video Harvard graduates are asked to explain why we have seasons, most didn't give a (scientifically valid and even common sense explanation), because they probably never were interested in understanding why. And it is not just Ivy League graduates but most "educated" adult people as I've asked now quite a few the same questions about the seasons, or even why the sunray's UV intensity is higher when the sun is high in the sky. Only a mind that is cluttered with specialized information is able to be obstructed asking this question during and after taking walks at different times of the day and year and not being curious why the heck the earth is warmer at such different times. Try to run this experiment for yourself by asking them questions that an _educated_ Athenian 2300 years ago would have understood or given a more accurate explanation for.

[@spuneethkumar2454]

Great lecture prof.! Nice job misleading the bot on the famous story ;)

[@Jong853]

Disagree, I think Building a moat will be futile. I'd rather learn to wield the tool than compete with it. Aside from divine intervention. the difference between principle-based and Mechanically based disciplines seems like a useless distinction. If you think about it, good principles are just programs we run in our brains that result in mechanical reactions and functions for given inputs. does the AI need to have principles if it can functionally replicate the end result better than humans? You cannot have creativity if you do not have a comprehensive connected understanding of the source material. AI does that better than people already, its just a question of how much data we give to it, which is rapidly growing

[@rexiioper6920]

I wonder if tenured Prof Damodaran of the NYU Stern School of business may want to make a video on NYUs new anti-discrimination policy that makes advocating for political zionism effectively a protected characteristic alongside race, ethnicity, sexual orientation etc.