Believe it or Not, AI Is Not the Answer to Everything

Plus, boomers versus doomers.

Number of the Week: 42.5% (explanation below)

Believe it or Not, AI Is Not the Answer to Everything

Given the hype around artificial intelligence (AI) in the wake of the introduction of ChatGPT a year ago, readers would be forgiven for assuming that any financial company can be boosted by AI. But there are a handful of publicly traded fintech pioneers that based their businesses on AI, and it’s far from obvious that they are thriving.

An important example is Upstart, the online lending platform. The company launched in 2012, and prominent investors included Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, ex-Google chief Eric Schmidt, and First Round Capital. In late 2020, when the company announced it was going public, Goldman Sachs and Citi were leading the way. Upstart’s mission had obvious appeal: The company pledged that it could use AI to make credit decisions more intelligently than traditional lenders.

And yet, Upstart has had a rollicking history as a public company.