Goldman Sachs Has Invested In A Company That Could Replace Analysts With Algorithms
Google Ventures, Accel Partners and CNBC are also some of Kensho's big investors, according to the Financial Times.
Here's what Kensho is trying to do, in its own words:
If Kensho's claims are accurate, it should send a shiver down the spine of every financial analyst and researcher. Previously, the huge and growing amount of data available hasn't harmed analysts: the numbers are often useless without some interpretation. But if that data can be interpreted automatically, it's bad news for researchers and analysts. They might not be needed anymore if a machine can do the interpreting faster and better.
This process isn't just something that's hitting analysts: white collar jobs could be replaced by algorithms and robots all over the place. Computers and robotic automation have replaced a huge proportion of jobs in manufacturing and agriculture in the last hundred years, but the trend isn't likely to spare service-sector desk-based workers.
Platforms like Narrative Science have already started to do this with journalism, with firms' financial statements quickly turned into news articles by the software. The stories are often indistinguishable from regular human-written news. A combination of firms like Kensho and Narrative Science mean you could soon be reading an article written by a robot journalist, based on research done by a robot analyst.