Everyone today talks about AI, big data and machine learning, yet most do not delve into the fundamental properties of how they will operate and how they might be an actual threat to asset managers. Some view technological methods as tools to assist them instead of being such a threat, and it would help provide both perspectives of the argument. Deep learning is a branch of machine learning that uses particular architectures of neural networks. These are artificial networks that attempt to actually replicate how the neural structures in human brains operate. Such methods have successfully been applied to areas such as computer vision – i.e. image processing and classification – as well as speech recognition. The techniques are readily available to any undergraduate student willing to learn the process.

Everyone today talks about AI, big data and machine learning, yet most do not delve into the fundamental properties of how they will operate and how they might be an actual threat...

Everyone today talks about AI, big data and machine learning, yet most do not delve into the fundamental properties of how they will operate and how they might be an actual threat to asset managers. Some view technological methods as tools to assist them instead of being such a threat, and it would help provide both perspectives of the argument. Deep learning is a branch of machine learning that uses particular architectures of neural networks. These are artificial networks that attempt to actually replicate how the neural structures in human brains operate. Such methods have successfully been applied to areas such as computer vision – i.e. image processing and classification – as well as speech recognition. The techniques are readily available to any undergraduate student willing to learn the process.