Computer Scientists Working on a Stock-Predicting "Robot"

If you think that playing on the stock market is all "flash and no cash", better wait until the stock-predicting PC or robot materializes. Lehman Brothers is working on a system that will probably tell you info about future stock fluctuations.

Harvard researcher Micheal Kearns is trying to help the company sift through tons of trade info using a Hal-like system (Hal is the computer from Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odissey" science fiction novel).

Al, the name that was given to the system, is supposed to spot and learn market patterns in order to predict future stock market fluctuations. Kearns is working on a program that can understand human language, read up on companies, listen to executives and distill what it learns into trading programs.

Al is actually a program that imbues computers with artificial intelligence. It uses computer formulas to read stock prices, company earnings and other similar data, and then creates a report for the investor. "This is going to change the world, and it's going to change Wall Street", said Kearns.

The bad news is that the "system" can't use judgment and that's where this future of tech story ends. Needless to say, no robot can read the future in order to warn you about "asteroid events" (the major news that pushes a company to the brink of extinction by wiping out the value of its stocks almost overnight). So forget about getting rich faster. Anyway, if all goes according to plans, you'll be able to ask your computer about potential corporations mergers, for instance.

If this future-predicting Al is implemented, not only will it change Wall Street mammal behavior but also the world. Is it possible that someday we will be ruled by slothful, smart and greedy robots? Maybe, but probably not.

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