This Stanford professor built a 'Terminator' AI fund manager that crushed 93% of human stock pickers. He says junior analysts' jobs are in jeopardy

A close-up of the face of Arnold Schwarzenegger as 'The Terminator.' Half of the face reveals the characters identity as a cyborg. (Credit: CBS via Getty Images)

• One way to examine AI’s potential is by dropping the finance world’s version of “The Terminator” on 1990’s Wall Street. Researchers at Stanford University and Boston College took that approach and found their bot could significantly boost most fund managers’ returns by de-risking their portfolios.

Whether artificial intelligence will augment or replace human labor is fiercely debated across countless industries. Two years ago, researchers at Stanford University and Boston College decided to explore what this rapidly advancing technology could mean for professional stock pickers—so they built an “AI analyst” and gave it the chance to modify the portfolios of over 3,300 actively managed and diversified mutual funds every three months.