- ChatGPT’s market and investment knowledge is spotty, and the bot is not yet a good tool for investors, DataTrek said.
- The company asked the chatbot seven market-related questions, and some of its answers were vague or incorrect.
- Still, observers point to ChatGPT’s rapid development, with the latest version released just last month.
Open AI’s ChatGPT still has major gaps in its knowledge of markets and investing, and it will be some time before the trending AI bot can be useful to investors, according to DataTrek.
In a note published on Friday, the research firm tested the capabilities of the trendy AI tool, asking it seven questions related to markets and investing. The chatbot refused to answer four questions, and it answered incorrectly or vaguely two other questions, the firm said.
For some questions – like when asked why Small cap stocks suffered in 2023 – his answer was vague and could be applied to other sectors of the market.
Sometimes his answers were completely wrong. Asked about the performance of the S&P 500 last year, ChatGPT said the benchmark stock index had a net return of 26.9%, although the index actually plunged 20% last year amid rising inflation and aggressive Fed rate hikes.
The bot also declined to comment on specific actions, saying it could not predict the future with certainty. This is the same answer ChatGPT gave when Insider asked for his Market Outlook 2023where he declined to offer an opinion and simply said that stock performance would be affected by economic conditions.
“Generative AI still has a long way to go before it proves useful in the financial services industry or as a tool for individual investors. ChatGPT does not make recommendations, but rather offers generic answers that you might also find in an economics textbook and who won’t get OpenAI in hot water with regulators,” said DataTrek co-founder Jessica Rabe.
ChatGPT sparked a viral craze in the markets earlier this year, with a myriad of names that fly away over even vague associations with emerging technology.
The chatbot could potentially serve as an assistant in portfolio management, a academic document said, although the researchers noted that ChatGPT was unlikely to “prophet” anything in the financial realm. Investment managers also don’t seem to be concerned about the bot taking over their work, as it only seems to be able to think on a surface level for now.
However, observers are quick to point out the rapid development of AI. In March, Open AI released the latest version of the bot, GPT-4who the company says is capable of “advanced reasoning” and “creativity.”
Outside of finance, technology is already advancing in very complex fields like medicine, pass a license exam with flying colors and easily diagnose a rare disease.