1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. 2 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:20,680 Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. 3 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:23,680 Speaker 3: I'm Tracy Alloway and I'm Joe. Isn't that Joe. 4 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:27,320 Speaker 2: When I think about the world of finance, Yeah, and 5 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:30,520 Speaker 2: what I would describe as mega trends of recent years 6 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:32,960 Speaker 2: and decades, there are definitely two that spring to mind. 7 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,680 Speaker 2: Maybe a third trend, although I don't know if it's mega, 8 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:39,080 Speaker 2: probably is. The first is definitely the rise of the 9 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:41,599 Speaker 2: buy side. So this idea that you know, it very 10 00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:43,880 Speaker 2: much used to be all about the banks, and those 11 00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:45,720 Speaker 2: were the ones that we kind of obsessed over, and 12 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:49,440 Speaker 2: then you have this extraordinary growth in the asset management industry. 13 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,599 Speaker 2: The second mega trend has to be technology, right, think 14 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 2: about the rise of electronic trading, electronic risk management, model 15 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:01,680 Speaker 2: driven risk management I like. And then the third semi 16 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:04,440 Speaker 2: mega trend, I don't know, rise of private markets right. 17 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:04,880 Speaker 1: Yeah. 18 00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:07,000 Speaker 3: Oh, I have another one, okay that I think is 19 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:10,800 Speaker 3: legit the sort of power law domination of a few 20 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:14,480 Speaker 3: mega companies and sort of whether it's con they get big, 21 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:17,280 Speaker 3: the winner take all this or the winner take mostness 22 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:19,559 Speaker 3: of the industry. I would add that as a mega trend. Okay, 23 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:21,759 Speaker 3: that's to say that connects to this episode absolutely. 24 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 2: So we have four big slash mega trends, and we 25 00:01:25,959 --> 00:01:29,080 Speaker 2: have the perfect guest to talk about all of those 26 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:31,760 Speaker 2: four things. And it comes at a time when obviously 27 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:34,480 Speaker 2: we're in this new sort of technological wave with AI. 28 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:38,360 Speaker 2: It very much feels like everyone in professional finance wants 29 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:41,360 Speaker 2: to figure out a way of being involved in AI 30 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:43,920 Speaker 2: in one way or another. It's funny. I was meeting 31 00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:45,720 Speaker 2: up with someone who works at a very large bank 32 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:47,880 Speaker 2: the other day and they were talking about how work 33 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:50,840 Speaker 2: that they've done twenty years ago, their managers are now 34 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:53,000 Speaker 2: adamant it has to be put into a big Excel 35 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 2: database because they're about to shove all of that into 36 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 2: an AI model. So you can see, you can see 37 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:01,160 Speaker 2: there's this like urgency. Yeah, and there's a perennial question 38 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 2: over how much of it is really. 39 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 3: Random data that exists somewhere. They need to have it 40 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:08,079 Speaker 3: as part of the data lake or whatever so that 41 00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:10,679 Speaker 3: the AI model knows about it, oh exactly. 42 00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:12,839 Speaker 2: And I think the question for this is how much 43 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:15,200 Speaker 2: of it is managers who are latching on to the 44 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:18,960 Speaker 2: AI trend versus how much of this is actually going 45 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,600 Speaker 2: to become productive, useful technology for finance. So we can 46 00:02:22,639 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 2: definitely talk a little bit about that. But we do 47 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:27,400 Speaker 2: have the perfect guests. Let's do it all right, So 48 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 2: we're going to be speaking with Rob Goldstein. He is, 49 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:32,960 Speaker 2: of course the COO of Black Rocks, someone who has 50 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:36,520 Speaker 2: literally lived through basically all of these mega trends that 51 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:37,359 Speaker 2: we just described. 52 00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:40,720 Speaker 4: Yes, and the question is how many hours do we have, 53 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 4: you know, needless to say, those mega trends we could 54 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 4: talk about for quite some time. 55 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:48,680 Speaker 3: Yeah, a serious, we could do a series serious. 56 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:54,000 Speaker 4: And one thing I would just politely identify. I think 57 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:57,760 Speaker 4: as people talk about the big getting bigger, yeah, I 58 00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:01,360 Speaker 4: think there's an underlying catalyst towards those who could provide 59 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:05,760 Speaker 4: a better value proposition are getting bigger. And I think 60 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:09,600 Speaker 4: that's the key theme that's happening, particularly with regard. 61 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:11,560 Speaker 3: To the byside. I know you were saying, was it 62 00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:14,440 Speaker 3: a polite you didn't push back, but a polite nuance 63 00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:18,799 Speaker 3: or something like that. But one could say that the 64 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:22,920 Speaker 3: ability to provide a better value proposition is itself a 65 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:26,720 Speaker 3: function of size in many instances, because the larger have 66 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:32,200 Speaker 3: the full suite, the whole menu, right services, A nuance 67 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:32,560 Speaker 3: upon it. 68 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:36,280 Speaker 4: One hundred And what's interesting is I think if you 69 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 4: ordered the Mega Themes, you can make a very strong 70 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 4: argument that it all comes down to technology, and technology 71 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:51,160 Speaker 4: is enabling things and value propositions to be achieved that 72 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 4: traditionally just couldn't be done. 73 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:54,760 Speaker 3: Great, let's just talk about that. 74 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:59,200 Speaker 2: Is it true that, like some of BlackRock's foundational by 75 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:02,520 Speaker 2: the way, the chances that I say Blackstone in this conversation. 76 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:03,600 Speaker 4: Yeah, that's not that's not good. 77 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:06,280 Speaker 3: I apologize, But we had a pre call and I 78 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:08,520 Speaker 3: said that I've been in this business a long time. 79 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:10,520 Speaker 3: We had a pre call with Rob like several weeks ago, 80 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:12,760 Speaker 3: I said Blackstone and then like I could tell, like 81 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:15,600 Speaker 3: a silenized like I said the wrong thing. Now if 82 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:17,000 Speaker 3: he's heard it all before. 83 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 2: I hope so. So is it true that, like the 84 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 2: foundational culture of black Rock is very much tied to technology, 85 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:25,920 Speaker 2: because the story that I always used to hear was 86 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:30,159 Speaker 2: about a Sun workstation and Ben Gollob. 87 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:33,880 Speaker 4: Yeah, and Ben is still a close friend and mentor, 88 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,000 Speaker 4: Ben being one of the founding partners of Blackrock. I 89 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:39,840 Speaker 4: think if you zoom out a little bit, because I 90 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:44,039 Speaker 4: think the history of Blackrock is very reflective of what 91 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:47,640 Speaker 4: the past thirty thirty five years have been in terms 92 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:50,920 Speaker 4: of the companies that have been most successful. And if 93 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,599 Speaker 4: you look at the founders of Blackrock, there were a 94 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:57,200 Speaker 4: group of people who were pioneers with regard to structured 95 00:04:57,240 --> 00:05:01,640 Speaker 4: products and the evolution of the mortgage mark. And what 96 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:07,119 Speaker 4: they realized is that banks at the time, the cell side, 97 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:09,920 Speaker 4: as you guys sort of laid the groundwork. Banks at 98 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:14,919 Speaker 4: the time were using supercomputers and they were very expensive 99 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 4: computers to structure things. And then the way they were 100 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:24,920 Speaker 4: selling those products was literally by faxing yield tables all 101 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:27,839 Speaker 4: over the world. And I know, and when I say 102 00:05:27,839 --> 00:05:31,240 Speaker 4: this to twenty something year old thirty something year olds, 103 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 4: including my own children who are when they're early twenties, 104 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:38,279 Speaker 4: a lot of the people back then didn't even have computers. 105 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:41,839 Speaker 4: Like computers were like there was one for a group 106 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:44,520 Speaker 4: of people, as opposed to everyone had one on their desk. 107 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:50,600 Speaker 4: So the thesis behind forming Blackrock was that we could actually 108 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:58,040 Speaker 4: build models that would help provide risk transparency for those 109 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:03,040 Speaker 4: type of instruments and help the end asset owner. We 110 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:07,560 Speaker 4: could build those models and through the sun workstation is 111 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:10,839 Speaker 4: the innovation. If you were reasonably clever. You didn't need 112 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:13,640 Speaker 4: to be a genius. But if you were reasonably clever, 113 00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:17,919 Speaker 4: you could buy ten Sun workstations for ten thousand dollars 114 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:23,280 Speaker 4: each and link them together and effectively do what previously 115 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:28,240 Speaker 4: only supercomputers that cost millions of dollars could do. So 116 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:32,360 Speaker 4: the founding thesis of Blackrock was really about how do 117 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:37,800 Speaker 4: we bring those technology capabilities which were not really available 118 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:40,920 Speaker 4: on the buy side, how do we use them as 119 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 4: the core of building an asset manager. That was the 120 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:49,240 Speaker 4: founding thesis, and I think one of the real success factors. 121 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:51,920 Speaker 4: And I think that when you look today, what I'm 122 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:55,320 Speaker 4: about to say seems like very odd, But I guess 123 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:59,479 Speaker 4: this is odd us, so it's perfect. But when I 124 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:03,080 Speaker 4: started at Blackrock in nineteen ninety four, when we had 125 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:06,760 Speaker 4: roughly eighty people nineteen billion dollars in assets under management, 126 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:09,760 Speaker 4: I was in the data and analytics team. I was 127 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:15,600 Speaker 4: effectively a data analyst. And like today, data technology, analytics 128 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:19,560 Speaker 4: are where the cool kids are, back then it was 129 00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:22,840 Speaker 4: not where the cool kids are. Trust me. And the 130 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:28,360 Speaker 4: whole concept of recognizing very early on that the asset 131 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:32,400 Speaker 4: management business at its core is an information processing business. 132 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:36,960 Speaker 4: Today is so obvious, but if you rewind back ten 133 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:41,360 Speaker 4: twenty thirty years ago, that was a very unique novel concept. 134 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:44,600 Speaker 3: We really do need like five hours now. This is 135 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:46,760 Speaker 3: kind of a tangent you mentioned in the idea of 136 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:50,480 Speaker 3: like you could string ten some workstations together to make 137 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:53,440 Speaker 3: a supercomputer. We are actually coming back to the future 138 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:57,320 Speaker 3: or the future back a little bit these currently in computing. 139 00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:00,440 Speaker 3: I have a good friend who has the problem is 140 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:02,240 Speaker 3: to help me later this year, I'm gonna buy like 141 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:05,040 Speaker 3: five macminis because he says, you can host your own 142 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 3: LLM now from home if you just have like four 143 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:10,120 Speaker 3: or five mini is strong together, and then you don't 144 00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:12,360 Speaker 3: have to then you don't have to depend on any 145 00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:15,600 Speaker 3: other company's data center for unlimited token usage. So this 146 00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:16,680 Speaker 3: is gonna kind of come back. 147 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:19,800 Speaker 4: Well, it's interesting, though. I think that's a real question 148 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:22,840 Speaker 4: in terms of where we are right now, because I 149 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:24,720 Speaker 4: don't know the answer to this, but I could make 150 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:27,360 Speaker 4: two good arguments. One is along the lines of what 151 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:31,600 Speaker 4: you're saying. The other is, we are living at an 152 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:35,280 Speaker 4: age right now. If you really just think about what's 153 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:41,720 Speaker 4: happening with AI, you could convert energy to intelligence, and 154 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:44,840 Speaker 4: the more money you spend on energy. The more intelligence 155 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:49,319 Speaker 4: you have, you could argue different than many technology trends 156 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:52,520 Speaker 4: that we've had over the past couple of decades. This 157 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:57,199 Speaker 4: is a technology trend that requires capital, and it requires 158 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:01,280 Speaker 4: spending a lot of money. And I think there's a 159 00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:04,040 Speaker 4: real question about whether or not this is a very 160 00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:08,200 Speaker 4: expensive technology or if this will ultimately wind up being 161 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:11,360 Speaker 4: five guys at home in a garage with a handful 162 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:15,240 Speaker 4: of mac Minnie's can accomplish miracles. I don't know if 163 00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:18,200 Speaker 4: that's certain yet, which one is going to prove true. 164 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:21,559 Speaker 3: I want to get in more on your history and 165 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:24,920 Speaker 3: Laddin and the technology that you've been involved in building 166 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:27,040 Speaker 3: over these years. But maybe big picture of question is 167 00:09:27,080 --> 00:09:29,959 Speaker 3: like one of the things about AI that really strikes 168 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,920 Speaker 3: me is potentially interesting with how it's gonna affect finance, 169 00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 3: is AI is nondeterministic. You put in a query and 170 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:41,360 Speaker 3: you don't really know what You never know if you're 171 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:45,280 Speaker 3: gonna get the same output twice or whatever. And I'm curious, like, 172 00:09:45,559 --> 00:09:48,080 Speaker 3: for one, you don't know how it arrived often and 173 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:51,200 Speaker 3: models can't explain themselves, and this is an issue for finance, 174 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:54,760 Speaker 3: which is they're often not explicable. Why the output came out, 175 00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:57,160 Speaker 3: But then there's this other element of you're not gonna 176 00:09:57,160 --> 00:09:59,760 Speaker 3: get the same thing twice. And I'm curious, like when 177 00:09:59,800 --> 00:10:03,520 Speaker 3: you think about how that fits into the history of technology, 178 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:06,800 Speaker 3: whether that is a source of anxiety for finance, you 179 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:08,680 Speaker 3: need to be able to show your work often in 180 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:10,880 Speaker 3: many cases, or you need to be able to Like 181 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:13,320 Speaker 3: traditional software, you write a line of code and as 182 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:16,280 Speaker 3: long as there's no bug, it'll produce the same result 183 00:10:16,559 --> 00:10:19,200 Speaker 3: a thousand times in a row. Is this new? Is 184 00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:21,560 Speaker 3: this something that is going to be a difficult at 185 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:22,559 Speaker 3: tension the workaround? 186 00:10:22,679 --> 00:10:27,320 Speaker 4: No question? Absolutely, no question. And just to give an analogy, Okay, 187 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:31,360 Speaker 4: I am sure there have been many, many, many people 188 00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:34,280 Speaker 4: who sat in this seat through the years and said, 189 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:37,560 Speaker 4: by x X being years ago, there will be self 190 00:10:37,600 --> 00:10:40,880 Speaker 4: driving cars, you won't need driver's licenses and so on 191 00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:43,560 Speaker 4: and so forth. Yeah, I think the tolerance people have 192 00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:47,480 Speaker 4: for computers to make mistakes is very different than the 193 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:51,320 Speaker 4: tolerance people have for humans to make mistakes. So that's 194 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:55,640 Speaker 4: just a societal starting point for all intents and purposes. 195 00:10:56,400 --> 00:10:59,680 Speaker 4: I think you could make a cohesive argument. I love 196 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:04,160 Speaker 4: Marvel movies as a family, that's one of our things. 197 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,880 Speaker 4: This is like alien technology has been found on the 198 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:10,920 Speaker 4: planet Earth and now we're figuring out how to use it. 199 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:14,840 Speaker 4: And one of the remarkable things about the technology, even 200 00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:17,800 Speaker 4: if and I know from listening to you you've played 201 00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:21,360 Speaker 4: with a lot of the coding tools, if you look 202 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:25,920 Speaker 4: at the coding tools, they write code and then there 203 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:28,439 Speaker 4: are bugs in the code, and then they find the 204 00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:31,680 Speaker 4: bugs and they fix the bugs. So like the way 205 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:35,440 Speaker 4: we've been trained to think about a computer is how 206 00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:38,880 Speaker 4: could that happen? Wouldn't it be smart enough to write 207 00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:40,040 Speaker 4: the code without the bugs? 208 00:11:40,280 --> 00:11:41,960 Speaker 2: Right? Like why do I have to prompt it to 209 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:42,640 Speaker 2: fix itself? 210 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:45,720 Speaker 4: Because it's much more like a person. It's much more 211 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:51,679 Speaker 4: about thinking than this binary zero in one structure that 212 00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:56,240 Speaker 4: we've become used to for computers. And I think one 213 00:11:56,280 --> 00:11:59,720 Speaker 4: of the remarkable if you spend time with any of 214 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:03,560 Speaker 4: the big technology firms, at the big AI companies, the 215 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:08,360 Speaker 4: frontier model providers, they use this term regulated industries, and 216 00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:14,200 Speaker 4: needless to say, regulated industries like financial services, we need 217 00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:18,160 Speaker 4: to be certain that we have the appropriate processes and 218 00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:21,880 Speaker 4: controls in place. So through one lens, that's a big 219 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:26,480 Speaker 4: friction through another lens, I think it's actually a competitive 220 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:30,240 Speaker 4: advantage to the industry because if you think about it, 221 00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:34,280 Speaker 4: we have so many controls. We have so many controls 222 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:37,439 Speaker 4: as a natural part of the process. So, for example, 223 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:41,400 Speaker 4: one of the first things we did within Blackrock when 224 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:45,240 Speaker 4: the technology became available, we created this rule that we 225 00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:48,199 Speaker 4: call this principle that we call the first draft principle. 226 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:52,120 Speaker 4: Why can't we have a first draft of everything we 227 00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:57,200 Speaker 4: produce be created through AI, whether it be a client 228 00:12:57,280 --> 00:13:03,360 Speaker 4: presentation and internal docum in a perspectus, And the reason 229 00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:06,960 Speaker 4: why you're very deliberate about saying first draft is because 230 00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:10,080 Speaker 4: we have sixteen people who check the first draft, and 231 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:15,320 Speaker 4: that ability as a starting point is a very strong 232 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:19,400 Speaker 4: catalyst towards leveraging and getting to know the technology. But 233 00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:25,160 Speaker 4: I would actually argue that today the technology has provided 234 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:30,079 Speaker 4: a lot of people like individual productivity, but at an 235 00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:34,240 Speaker 4: enterprise level, if you look at the case studies, it's 236 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:37,040 Speaker 4: not clear to be we've entered the first inning of 237 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:41,439 Speaker 4: the actual enterprise implementation. I still think the national anthem 238 00:13:41,559 --> 00:13:44,800 Speaker 4: is sort of being played, and I think that the 239 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:49,960 Speaker 4: actual overhang between what the models can do and the 240 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:53,959 Speaker 4: fact that this is technology that needs to be implemented. 241 00:13:54,520 --> 00:14:00,880 Speaker 4: It requires organizational design business process re engineering, like implementing 242 00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:04,400 Speaker 4: technology is hard and takes time, and we haven't even 243 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:07,320 Speaker 4: started that enterprise implementation yet. 244 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:10,040 Speaker 2: Can you talk a little bit more about this in 245 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:12,640 Speaker 2: the context of Aladdin, because I think part of the 246 00:14:12,679 --> 00:14:15,120 Speaker 2: concern here that Joe was getting at is that you 247 00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:18,360 Speaker 2: have these models that are getting more complex and more 248 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:20,960 Speaker 2: difficult to predict. We don't know what they're going to 249 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:25,040 Speaker 2: spit out. They're non deterministic, as Joe said. And meanwhile, 250 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:29,240 Speaker 2: you have this risk management technology that has already for 251 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:32,440 Speaker 2: years been described as a black box, and I'm sure 252 00:14:32,440 --> 00:14:35,520 Speaker 2: you have opinions on that particular label. But if it 253 00:14:35,560 --> 00:14:38,920 Speaker 2: gets more sophisticated, are people going to fully understand what 254 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:39,640 Speaker 2: it's actually doing. 255 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:42,160 Speaker 4: Well, let me start out by saying, we haven't described 256 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:43,720 Speaker 4: it as a black no one no, not yet, so 257 00:14:44,040 --> 00:14:47,760 Speaker 4: we'll come back to that in a minute. But importantly, 258 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:51,360 Speaker 4: AI is a technology is not new. I wish I 259 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 4: knew the exact year, But like the AI lab at 260 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:57,560 Speaker 4: MIT was created in the nineteen fifties, we started our 261 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:01,840 Speaker 4: AI lab in twenty eighteen. So these methods have been 262 00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:05,320 Speaker 4: used for a long time at a very sort of 263 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:07,800 Speaker 4: simple level that I'm sure would offend a lot of people. 264 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:11,000 Speaker 4: You could think about old AI was about numbers. New 265 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:14,720 Speaker 4: AI is about language, and the language element of it 266 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:18,960 Speaker 4: creates all sorts of humans communicate much more through language 267 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:23,160 Speaker 4: than numbers, so it creates a whole host of other 268 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:28,680 Speaker 4: unintended consequences. But when you look at a platform like 269 00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:32,240 Speaker 4: a Latin as an enterprise platform, and by the way, 270 00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:36,440 Speaker 4: I would make a cohesive argument everything I'm saying, you 271 00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:39,360 Speaker 4: could make the same case with regard to the Bloomberg 272 00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:42,600 Speaker 4: terminal in. 273 00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:45,520 Speaker 2: Fairpoint. 274 00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:52,480 Speaker 4: So if you think about these technologies, first, the reward 275 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:56,640 Speaker 4: for good work is more work. So the to do 276 00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:02,600 Speaker 4: list for these technologies is in it like genuinely infinite. 277 00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:08,960 Speaker 4: Every year Blackrock winds up having more engineers. We have 278 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:13,520 Speaker 4: roughly five thousand engineers, data analysts, modelers. Every year we 279 00:16:13,520 --> 00:16:16,320 Speaker 4: wind up having more engineers, and every year we wind 280 00:16:16,400 --> 00:16:18,920 Speaker 4: up having a bigger to do list of enhancements we 281 00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:24,040 Speaker 4: could put within Aladdin. So the first element of the 282 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:28,320 Speaker 4: AI capability, and I would argue the most mature use 283 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:33,080 Speaker 4: case that exists at an enterprise level is coding. So 284 00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:36,800 Speaker 4: the ability to go through that to do list, the 285 00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:41,760 Speaker 4: velocity of that is off the charts. The second component, 286 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:45,600 Speaker 4: and this is one of the challenges of these enterprise 287 00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:50,240 Speaker 4: expert systems, is that the number of times I've been 288 00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:53,320 Speaker 4: in a meeting with a client where they say, you know, 289 00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:56,720 Speaker 4: why doesn't Aladdin do this, And I'm like, hmm, I 290 00:16:56,760 --> 00:17:00,280 Speaker 4: think Aladdin does that, but let me. I don't want 291 00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:02,360 Speaker 4: to like blurt it out, let me sort of follow up, 292 00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:05,199 Speaker 4: and then I'll leave the meeting. I'll call the people 293 00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:09,600 Speaker 4: smarter than me, and they'll be like, Aladdin's done that 294 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:14,000 Speaker 4: for seven years, and You're like, okay. The ability for 295 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:19,159 Speaker 4: people to keep current in technology is very hard. And 296 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:21,960 Speaker 4: you know, as much as we like the technology, most 297 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:26,359 Speaker 4: people their goal with technology is to just interface with 298 00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:28,600 Speaker 4: it to do their jobs and then like go home. 299 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:34,439 Speaker 4: So the ability to take an expert system that today 300 00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:37,280 Speaker 4: requires a lot of knowledge and keeping up with it 301 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:40,600 Speaker 4: and instead just type in what you want it to do, 302 00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:45,560 Speaker 4: and an agent will be the ultimate real time user 303 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:48,760 Speaker 4: of Aladdin that will then do those activities. All the 304 00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:52,600 Speaker 4: same controls will exist, the four eyes principle, All of 305 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:58,399 Speaker 4: those controls will exist, but that ability to have users 306 00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:04,440 Speaker 4: to have clients access all the untapped capabilities that today 307 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:09,399 Speaker 4: they don't know about. I think the value enterprise technology 308 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:12,680 Speaker 4: is going to provide going forward, Aladdin and other enterprise 309 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:16,159 Speaker 4: technology is actually going to be much greater than at 310 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:20,119 Speaker 4: any point previously. It's actually it's extremely exciting to me 311 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:23,600 Speaker 4: because there's nothing more frustrating than being in a meeting 312 00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:27,439 Speaker 4: where someone is complaining you don't do something when you 313 00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:29,240 Speaker 4: actually do it. 314 00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:31,600 Speaker 3: This must be a thing for a bunch of enterprise software, 315 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:34,040 Speaker 3: right because no one we've talked to other software people 316 00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:36,159 Speaker 3: on no one uses all the spects, and no one 317 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:38,159 Speaker 3: uses all the features, no one knows all the features, 318 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:41,080 Speaker 3: et cetera. But you said something, and it is something 319 00:18:41,119 --> 00:18:43,920 Speaker 3: that's kind of one of my hobby horses. If it's 320 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:48,040 Speaker 3: the agent that's using Aladdin rather than the sort of human, 321 00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:50,760 Speaker 3: does that change how you think about UX? 322 00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:56,359 Speaker 4: Okay, it's a great question. We debate this a lot, 323 00:18:57,520 --> 00:19:00,199 Speaker 4: and I'll tell you about something I saw yesterday. But 324 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:04,320 Speaker 4: I think it has to But at the same time, 325 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:07,199 Speaker 4: I think there will be people who will want to 326 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:11,000 Speaker 4: do it themselves. I think there will be people who 327 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:14,800 Speaker 4: want to do it themselves. You know, it's interesting, even 328 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:18,840 Speaker 4: in this age of everything being on the phone, you 329 00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:21,679 Speaker 4: still need a website that people could access that area, 330 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:25,080 Speaker 4: so I think that there still will be people who 331 00:19:25,119 --> 00:19:29,320 Speaker 4: want to do it themselves. I saw a demo yesterday 332 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:33,520 Speaker 4: of a tool from one of these AI companies that 333 00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:37,280 Speaker 4: I hope I could articulate it well enough, but it 334 00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:39,640 Speaker 4: will look at a website, and it showed it looked 335 00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:43,040 Speaker 4: at one of our websites and redesigned it to be 336 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:47,840 Speaker 4: more like optimal user friendliness. So it was the opposite 337 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:50,600 Speaker 4: of it was using AI to almost do the opposite 338 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:53,520 Speaker 4: of what you said, it make it easier for humans. 339 00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:56,080 Speaker 4: And it was one of these things where you know 340 00:19:56,160 --> 00:20:00,040 Speaker 4: in the demo because websites are public, so they we 341 00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:03,360 Speaker 4: were able to do things with our own stuff that 342 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:07,200 Speaker 4: we didn't know about. And as they're showing what they 343 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:10,000 Speaker 4: would do, and when I say they what a computer 344 00:20:10,040 --> 00:20:13,840 Speaker 4: would do after ten minutes of processing with our own website, 345 00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:19,920 Speaker 4: you're like, in X months or maybe a year or two, 346 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:23,359 Speaker 4: tools like this will re engineer every website on the 347 00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:26,520 Speaker 4: planet Earth and they will all be more user for. 348 00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:46,480 Speaker 2: Them for us hopefully and not the agents. Can you 349 00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:49,560 Speaker 2: talk a little bit more about the moat around Aladdin, 350 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:52,560 Speaker 2: because this is the other big talking point of the moment, 351 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:55,480 Speaker 2: which is the SaaS apocalypse idea, and in the age 352 00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:57,680 Speaker 2: of vibe coding, everyone is just going to go out 353 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:01,800 Speaker 2: and design their own portfolio system. 354 00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:05,320 Speaker 4: Let me start out, let me provide a little context 355 00:21:05,440 --> 00:21:09,879 Speaker 4: broadly about what we think is going to happen, or 356 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:12,480 Speaker 4: what a group of us think are going to happen, 357 00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:15,040 Speaker 4: and then let me go into Aladdin, because I think 358 00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:19,560 Speaker 4: that they're somewhat related. So one of our portfolio managers, 359 00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:23,120 Speaker 4: one of our technology portfolio managers, is a gentleman, Tony Kim. 360 00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:28,120 Speaker 4: And a year ago, two years ago, I said, Tony, 361 00:21:28,240 --> 00:21:31,720 Speaker 4: if today there are one hundred lines of code in 362 00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:36,159 Speaker 4: the world, in twenty thirty, how many are there? And 363 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:40,919 Speaker 4: he said a million. And I was like, you're out 364 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:44,119 Speaker 4: of your mind and he said no, no, no, Like 365 00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:46,479 Speaker 4: I was quite thoughtful about that. I didn't make up 366 00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:46,959 Speaker 4: a number. 367 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:50,880 Speaker 2: We've all seen how much Joe is coding well. 368 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:53,399 Speaker 4: But this is an important to mention because ten times 369 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:57,360 Speaker 4: ten times ten times ten times. So if you believe 370 00:21:57,560 --> 00:21:59,879 Speaker 4: which you know, it's going to be a multiple. You 371 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:02,600 Speaker 4: could argue is it three, is it seven? Is a ten? 372 00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:05,680 Speaker 4: Is it fourteen? But it's going to go up every 373 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:11,640 Speaker 4: year by a multiple given these tools. So the amount 374 00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:14,280 Speaker 4: of code in the world is going to go up dramatically, 375 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:18,200 Speaker 4: and I think that when you look at a platform 376 00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:21,760 Speaker 4: like a Laddin and in many regards, I think it 377 00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:26,760 Speaker 4: would be like things with Bloomberg. They're at centers of 378 00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:32,360 Speaker 4: an ecosystem. The ecosystem is highly regulated, the ecosystem has 379 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:39,040 Speaker 4: zero tolerance for fault or error. The processes you do 380 00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:43,720 Speaker 4: not only leverage tremendous amounts of proprietary data, so it's 381 00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:47,640 Speaker 4: not within these models or accessible by the models, but importantly, 382 00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:53,560 Speaker 4: clients are putting their most sensitive data into these platforms. 383 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:58,639 Speaker 4: And then what you're doing in terms of workflow is 384 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:06,199 Speaker 4: highly highly, highly idiosyncratic, and requires this combination of people, process, 385 00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:12,840 Speaker 4: and technology. So it's a hard time in this world, 386 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:16,639 Speaker 4: in my opinion, to predict what twenty fifty looks like. 387 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:21,119 Speaker 4: But when you look forward ten years in our industry, 388 00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:27,320 Speaker 4: these platforms, if anything, are going to do more, not less. 389 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:30,919 Speaker 4: And I think what really is going to be unlocked 390 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:35,840 Speaker 4: is that users like Joe are going to access these 391 00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:40,200 Speaker 4: platforms through their own coding tools. But these coding tools 392 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:43,600 Speaker 4: are going to be central to those platforms. I didn't 393 00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:48,119 Speaker 4: forget your black box comment, going back to never forget 394 00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:49,440 Speaker 4: going back. 395 00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:51,560 Speaker 3: No, I think it's other people. 396 00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:55,360 Speaker 4: No, I think it's important, and I think that technology 397 00:23:56,160 --> 00:24:01,080 Speaker 4: ten or twenty years ago, certain technology were designed to 398 00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:07,840 Speaker 4: be closed systems. You know where I'm going. Certain technologies 399 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:10,240 Speaker 4: were designed to be closed systems. Aladdin was one of 400 00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:14,159 Speaker 4: those technologies, and roughly ten years ago we started this 401 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:17,879 Speaker 4: open a Laddin campaign, well before anything to do with 402 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:20,760 Speaker 4: this round of AI were in, which was all about 403 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:24,600 Speaker 4: the future of technology is going to be Some people 404 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,359 Speaker 4: are going to want to interact with it through a 405 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:29,920 Speaker 4: keyboard and a mouse, and many people are going to 406 00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:33,639 Speaker 4: want to interact with it through code. Because even if 407 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:38,000 Speaker 4: you're graduating with an English major, if you're graduating at 408 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:40,600 Speaker 4: most schools at this point, you've taken a coding class, 409 00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:43,880 Speaker 4: so just the amount of technical expertise that you come 410 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:46,040 Speaker 4: in is a whole different level. 411 00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:49,600 Speaker 3: So this is like opening up more like API end points, 412 00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:52,679 Speaker 3: all things like that, as opposed to say like open source, like. 413 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,720 Speaker 4: Open open within a closed ecosystem, And that is a 414 00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:01,200 Speaker 4: critical element because open within a closed d eystem one 415 00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:03,840 Speaker 4: of the things and it's like obvious after the fact, 416 00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:06,480 Speaker 4: but one of the things that we realize, like, oh 417 00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:10,679 Speaker 4: my god, this is amazing and it's so valuable is 418 00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:13,800 Speaker 4: that when you call our APIs, for example in Aladdin, 419 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:19,280 Speaker 4: your permissions go through. So if you think about the 420 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:24,400 Speaker 4: complexity of managing permissions in an asset manager with thousands 421 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,640 Speaker 4: of people, you could see some portfolios, you could see 422 00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:31,960 Speaker 4: some portfolios, they're different portfolios. You could trade, you're not 423 00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:35,680 Speaker 4: allowed to trade. You can only confirm trades. The complexity 424 00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:38,600 Speaker 4: of those permissions. So the fact that when you call 425 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:42,879 Speaker 4: an API, it knows what you can and can access 426 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:49,000 Speaker 4: that whole control plane and layer is an incredible value proposition. 427 00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:52,520 Speaker 4: And the more you have people coding, and the more 428 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:56,879 Speaker 4: you have people interacting with systems in more technical ways, 429 00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:01,680 Speaker 4: the more valuable those control planes actually wind up being. 430 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,720 Speaker 3: What happens to the flip side. Okay, you've described some 431 00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:14,240 Speaker 3: core pieces of infrastructure that regulated, there's proprietary data, etc. 432 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:18,159 Speaker 3: Clients are putting their most sensitive info in the world, 433 00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:21,320 Speaker 3: and your view is that the value of those platforms 434 00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:25,480 Speaker 3: will grow. Are there's the software that's not that or 435 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:26,800 Speaker 3: is that other zeros? 436 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:32,560 Speaker 4: Absolutely no, absolutely, there's well, for first of all, sort 437 00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:37,879 Speaker 4: of these things have long tails. Okay, So like actually 438 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:42,800 Speaker 4: going through the process of retiring a system is a 439 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,560 Speaker 4: lot of work no matter what the system is. So 440 00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:50,840 Speaker 4: there are long tails. But there are certain technologies that 441 00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:55,080 Speaker 4: are really and we all use them. There are certain 442 00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:59,879 Speaker 4: technologies that are about collating public information and making it 443 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:04,000 Speaker 4: easy for you to access, and I think it's fair 444 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:09,520 Speaker 4: to say that the AI tools that exist are the 445 00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:14,760 Speaker 4: ultimate oracles in being able to do that, in being 446 00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:19,000 Speaker 4: able to scour all public sources and give you back 447 00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:22,159 Speaker 4: information in the way that you're most comfortable with. So, 448 00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:28,040 Speaker 4: particularly that segment of sas, which is that like convenience 449 00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:33,720 Speaker 4: layer where they don't really have proprietary data, they're not 450 00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:38,920 Speaker 4: really in the workflow, They're a convenience technology. I think 451 00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:42,080 Speaker 4: those convenience technologies. 452 00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:44,200 Speaker 1: They're in trouble. 453 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:48,520 Speaker 4: They're certainly going to be looking for ways of reimagining 454 00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:49,760 Speaker 4: their value proposition. 455 00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:53,080 Speaker 2: Well, one of the reasons we wanted to have you 456 00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:55,679 Speaker 2: on the podcast is because you are both a provider 457 00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:59,440 Speaker 2: of AI viz Aladdin and also a user of AI 458 00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:04,960 Speaker 2: at your own company. And we've all seen various executives 459 00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:08,560 Speaker 2: and managers talk about AI as a productivity enhancing tool, 460 00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:11,760 Speaker 2: and they tend to talk about it in very general terms. 461 00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:13,840 Speaker 2: So I would be curious to hear from your perspective 462 00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:18,520 Speaker 2: exactly what a productivity enhancement at Blackrock actually looks like. 463 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:24,880 Speaker 4: I will give you a productivity enhancement from Friday great 464 00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:28,720 Speaker 4: of last week because, and by the way, what I'm describing, 465 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:34,399 Speaker 4: I think is the future everywhere. I hope Blackrock gets 466 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,320 Speaker 4: to that future faster than others, but I believe it's 467 00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:41,440 Speaker 4: the future. So we have been doing a lot of 468 00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:45,560 Speaker 4: work enhancing a lot in many ways, and one of 469 00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,320 Speaker 4: the big themes that we have is how do we 470 00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:54,160 Speaker 4: provide more transparency in the private markets to be as 471 00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:57,640 Speaker 4: close as possible to the public markets. In pursuit of 472 00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:02,120 Speaker 4: this whole portfolio. We have a large program of work 473 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:06,360 Speaker 4: that's been going on for quite some time, so I 474 00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:09,840 Speaker 4: try to spend hours every Friday getting demos of things 475 00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:15,400 Speaker 4: we're working on. So my Friday afternoon demo along the 476 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:18,640 Speaker 4: theme that I just described, was a demo of a 477 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:22,960 Speaker 4: tool that was awesome, but let me go through how 478 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,880 Speaker 4: it was created. And this was the first time end 479 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:31,800 Speaker 4: to end that at least I've been shown this. So 480 00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:42,560 Speaker 4: a group of people that included portfolio managers, risk professionals, engineers, 481 00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:46,600 Speaker 4: product managers, a group of people sat in a room 482 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:51,720 Speaker 4: for multiple hours talking about how this capability should work. 483 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:59,920 Speaker 4: That discussion was recorded. That discussion, through the recording of it, 484 00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:05,560 Speaker 4: created a functional document. That functional document was lightly tweaked. 485 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:09,560 Speaker 4: That functional document was then put in some of the 486 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:15,360 Speaker 4: AI coding tools that we use. That document, through the 487 00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:18,680 Speaker 4: AI coding tools, led to a prototype. There was a 488 00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:22,920 Speaker 4: debugging process that you live through that we just described 489 00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:27,080 Speaker 4: and on Friday. You know, I've seen a lot of 490 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:31,280 Speaker 4: prototypes before in my sort of thirty two years can imagine, 491 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:35,360 Speaker 4: so I know the questions to ask where you see 492 00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:38,880 Speaker 4: the prototype is like a thin shell, but if you 493 00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:44,120 Speaker 4: press enough, the shell cracks. Like this wasn't like a prototype. 494 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:48,360 Speaker 4: This was like the real deal. And when you look 495 00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:54,720 Speaker 4: at that cycle, we effectively collapsed. What would have taken 496 00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:59,320 Speaker 4: the unit of measurement would have been months now, the 497 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:03,200 Speaker 4: unit of measurement was days now. It will still go 498 00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:07,480 Speaker 4: through our software development life cycle, it will be tested 499 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:10,920 Speaker 4: all of those things. But when you look at that 500 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:15,640 Speaker 4: as a productivity tool, this goes back to the ten 501 00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,960 Speaker 4: xing the amount of lines of code in the world 502 00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:22,760 Speaker 4: every year, there's just going to be an explosion in 503 00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:24,840 Speaker 4: the ability to engineer things. 504 00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:27,800 Speaker 2: Now I'm wondering if the coding tool, when it sees 505 00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:29,640 Speaker 2: a transcript of a meeting like that, do you think 506 00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:34,080 Speaker 2: it weights the participants by title and level of importance? 507 00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:35,360 Speaker 2: Necessarial question. 508 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:37,720 Speaker 3: It probably does. It would be weird if it didn't, right. 509 00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:44,320 Speaker 4: It's interesting. My intuition is it doesn't. My intuition is 510 00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:48,720 Speaker 4: this would be a great exercise in those who talk 511 00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:50,560 Speaker 4: most are probably most reflective. 512 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:54,640 Speaker 3: I've heard about a company that's doing third party consulting 513 00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:57,640 Speaker 3: for helping companies implement software. And one of the things 514 00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,440 Speaker 3: that they're doing is they get on a zoom with 515 00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:04,600 Speaker 3: the client and they have a camera trained on the 516 00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:08,520 Speaker 3: whiteboard that they're working on, and that video file also 517 00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:12,360 Speaker 3: is part of so in addition to the audio, because 518 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:15,360 Speaker 3: you know, whiteboards of the lingo franca of software development, 519 00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:17,640 Speaker 3: so that's also gets uploaded to it and so that 520 00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 3: it like sees that whole workflow and stuff. It's pretty 521 00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:24,160 Speaker 3: it's pretty wild stuff. I'm curious, Tokens. There's been a 522 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:28,600 Speaker 3: lot of headlines lately about token sticker shock. We are 523 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:32,080 Speaker 3: spending a lot on infront. I'm curious if you could 524 00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:35,880 Speaker 3: tell us anything about token consumption this year versus last 525 00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:40,400 Speaker 3: year at Black Rock. But also like one of the 526 00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:43,000 Speaker 3: things that we're also seeing and it's very it's related 527 00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:46,160 Speaker 3: to this is like the compute constraints that have long 528 00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:49,240 Speaker 3: been talked about is theoretical are starting to actually bite. 529 00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:53,840 Speaker 3: People who are sort of like anthropic users are like whatever, Like, 530 00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:56,120 Speaker 3: could you talk a little bit about token consumption? And 531 00:32:56,680 --> 00:33:00,440 Speaker 3: is the compute constraint real? From your perspective, if you 532 00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:03,280 Speaker 3: could snap the fingers and get one hundred thousand more 533 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:06,200 Speaker 3: plugged in GPUs, would that be a big help right now? 534 00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:09,800 Speaker 4: Well, I think that you have to sort of go 535 00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:13,600 Speaker 4: back in time a little bit. So one of the key, key, 536 00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:18,240 Speaker 4: key lessons learned that I've experienced, and I remember one 537 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:21,959 Speaker 4: of the near founding partners, a gentleman Charlie Halleck, who 538 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:25,800 Speaker 4: unfortunately passed away. What he instilled in me, among many 539 00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:32,040 Speaker 4: other things, was if you have the right modelers and 540 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:37,160 Speaker 4: engineers and you leave them unconstrained, they will bankrupt the 541 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:43,080 Speaker 4: company in terms of their insatiable appetite for compute. In 542 00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:47,360 Speaker 4: the old days, you had a physical data center, that 543 00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:51,160 Speaker 4: was the constraint. You would have to order hardware. At 544 00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:54,880 Speaker 4: some point people would say we're outgrowing our data center, 545 00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:57,000 Speaker 4: you'd say, let's wait a year and see what happens. 546 00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:02,320 Speaker 4: So in today's world, the lesssticity is obviously very different. 547 00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:05,640 Speaker 4: But as a starting point, there are a group of 548 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:08,880 Speaker 4: people within Blackrock, and I think this is true in 549 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:12,600 Speaker 4: any sort of great financial services company that if you 550 00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:17,480 Speaker 4: leave them unconstrained from a compute power perspective twenty years ago, 551 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:20,000 Speaker 4: they would have bankrupted the company ten years ago, and 552 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:24,480 Speaker 4: today they will. So part of it is how do 553 00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:27,760 Speaker 4: you think about where to invest. I don't know offhand 554 00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:30,560 Speaker 4: the number of tokens we're consuming today relative to a era, 555 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:35,279 Speaker 4: but it's multiples, it's multiples higher. And I think that 556 00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:38,799 Speaker 4: we're still at a point again as a company, but 557 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:42,640 Speaker 4: also at a broad industry level where I don't really 558 00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:46,160 Speaker 4: think the game has started yet. So I don't think 559 00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:50,160 Speaker 4: anyone really knows what the token consumption is going to be, 560 00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:54,280 Speaker 4: and equally is important, I don't think anyone has really 561 00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:56,640 Speaker 4: started optimizing their token consumption. 562 00:34:57,040 --> 00:34:59,560 Speaker 2: You know what someone needs to do is build an 563 00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:02,399 Speaker 2: Aladdin for token efficiency. 564 00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:06,040 Speaker 4: It is a certainty that not only will that exist, 565 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:09,960 Speaker 4: but one of the gentlemen who the person who actually 566 00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:13,759 Speaker 4: leads our Ai lab a gentleman Stephen Boyd. I had 567 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:16,319 Speaker 4: called him in the early days of this happening and 568 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:19,000 Speaker 4: I'm like, what are we missing? Like, Steven, help me understand. 569 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,040 Speaker 4: What are we missing? He said two things, and he 570 00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:26,799 Speaker 4: is a professor of engineering at Stanford. He said, you're 571 00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:32,279 Speaker 4: missing two things. One is that articulate language is very, 572 00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:34,799 Speaker 4: very powerful. And I'm like, okay, what does that mean? 573 00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:37,759 Speaker 4: And he's like, think about it. I'm a professor. If 574 00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:41,040 Speaker 4: I'm reading a paper and it's like not in great, 575 00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:44,759 Speaker 4: it's not written that well, you check everything. And if 576 00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:47,520 Speaker 4: you're reading a paper that's written really well, you just 577 00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:50,400 Speaker 4: assume it's right. So that was the first point. The 578 00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:54,360 Speaker 4: second point he had, which relates to this topic, he said, 579 00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:58,440 Speaker 4: just remember there's a bunch of graduate students here and 580 00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:01,719 Speaker 4: everywhere else that right now we're working on like the 581 00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:05,560 Speaker 4: most boring aspects of this too, including how to have 582 00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:08,960 Speaker 4: these models be more efficient. So right now it's all 583 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:12,279 Speaker 4: about the quest for intelligence. I think we're going to 584 00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:17,680 Speaker 4: see it pivot slightly to the quest for enterprise use cases, 585 00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:20,520 Speaker 4: and then I think it's going to pivot very quickly 586 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:25,760 Speaker 4: to the quest for efficiency of how you're accessing things. 587 00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:27,080 Speaker 4: We're not there yet. 588 00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:44,799 Speaker 2: I want to go back to something you said about 589 00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:49,080 Speaker 2: private markets quickly, which is this whole portfolio management idea. 590 00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:52,680 Speaker 2: This idea that via a system like Aladdin, you can 591 00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:55,800 Speaker 2: manage your private assets the same way you would manage 592 00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:58,600 Speaker 2: your public assets, and you get more transparency around pricing 593 00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,640 Speaker 2: and things like that. So part of the sales pitch 594 00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,120 Speaker 2: with private markets has been this idea of an i 595 00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:07,919 Speaker 2: liquidity premium and the idea that you earn a little 596 00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:11,680 Speaker 2: bit more because these things are not treated like public 597 00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:15,440 Speaker 2: market assets. Once you start to integrate them via new 598 00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:18,759 Speaker 2: technology into your system, once you start to be able 599 00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:22,120 Speaker 2: to manage them much more similarly to a more liquid asset, 600 00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:24,560 Speaker 2: does some of that sales pitch start to go away. 601 00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:27,320 Speaker 4: I think of it as an effort premium. There's a 602 00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:30,680 Speaker 4: liquidity element to it, and then there's like an effort premium. 603 00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:33,000 Speaker 4: If you have to do more work, presumably you need 604 00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:37,200 Speaker 4: to be compensated for that. But I also believe that, 605 00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:40,880 Speaker 4: and I feel so old as I talk like this. 606 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:45,120 Speaker 4: I'm only fifty two, but I feel so as crazy 607 00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:49,920 Speaker 4: as it sounds to many people. When I started, the 608 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:55,040 Speaker 4: way you would get information about public bonds because even 609 00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:59,000 Speaker 4: Bloomberg back then was a bit nascent. You would read 610 00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:03,880 Speaker 4: a prospectus and you would type into a computer, this 611 00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:06,480 Speaker 4: is the maturity, this is the sinking schedule, this is 612 00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:09,640 Speaker 4: the call schedule. Now today, you say that to people 613 00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:13,279 Speaker 4: who entered the industry in the past twenty years, and 614 00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:18,439 Speaker 4: they think you're nuts. So I think there's no fighting technology. 615 00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:23,760 Speaker 4: That's my own opinion. So I think it is certain 616 00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:26,200 Speaker 4: that if you say in ten years of the private 617 00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:30,400 Speaker 4: markets more or less transparent, they're certainly more transparent. And 618 00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:34,200 Speaker 4: I think if you think about your life, almost everything 619 00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:37,960 Speaker 4: in your life is becoming more transparent. Like it's funny. 620 00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:39,600 Speaker 4: I don't think any of us. I try not to 621 00:38:39,640 --> 00:38:42,960 Speaker 4: affix technology on my body, but it's very rare that 622 00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:46,000 Speaker 4: three people would be together where someone doesn't have some 623 00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:49,880 Speaker 4: device that's monitoring like their blood pressure in real time. 624 00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:54,880 Speaker 4: So like everything is pointing towards more transparency. I have 625 00:38:54,960 --> 00:39:00,879 Speaker 4: a hard time believing that as private markets exposures importance grow, 626 00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:05,160 Speaker 4: the end asset owner is going to wind up with 627 00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:07,800 Speaker 4: less transparency. So I think this is just the direction 628 00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:12,880 Speaker 4: of travel. I do think over time, certain components of 629 00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:16,640 Speaker 4: it will start to become more standardized, very similar to 630 00:39:16,680 --> 00:39:19,719 Speaker 4: things that happened in the public bond markets and the 631 00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:23,480 Speaker 4: public equity markets. And then there will be new innovations 632 00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:28,320 Speaker 4: in other ways. But I believe that things will become 633 00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:35,080 Speaker 4: much more transparent. It's a certainty in the future. 634 00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:38,080 Speaker 3: And this is I guess more from just an investment standpoint, 635 00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:42,640 Speaker 3: but like, what is the investor's source of edge in 636 00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:44,640 Speaker 3: the future. You know, at one point maybe there was 637 00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:47,320 Speaker 3: a source of edge because you were early to jump 638 00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:50,799 Speaker 3: on and see the potential of stringing together Sun microsystems 639 00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:54,120 Speaker 3: and you could replicate whatever or these workstations were just 640 00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:57,759 Speaker 3: looking forward for the portfolio manager, et cetera. What constitutes edge. 641 00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:01,359 Speaker 4: It's a great question, and I think across industries, if 642 00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:03,360 Speaker 4: you think of them as a treadmill, everyone's going to 643 00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:07,200 Speaker 4: have to run faster. There's no question that that's the case. 644 00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:10,880 Speaker 4: I think the edge you could break up into three categories. First, 645 00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:14,560 Speaker 4: I think the edge is going to be helping clients 646 00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:18,799 Speaker 4: with their whole portfolio as opposed to just pieces. And 647 00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:22,080 Speaker 4: I think if you look at the asset management industry, 648 00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:28,160 Speaker 4: a very significant i would say evolution aspect of the 649 00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:34,040 Speaker 4: asset management industry is that the industry organized itself inconsistent 650 00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:38,320 Speaker 4: with how clients build portfolios. You had fixed income shops, 651 00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:41,000 Speaker 4: you had equity shops. You had index managers, you had 652 00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:44,520 Speaker 4: active managers, you had systematic managers, you had public markets, 653 00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:47,640 Speaker 4: you had private markets, and then you force the client 654 00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:51,719 Speaker 4: to put all the stuff together. So the industry is 655 00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:54,479 Speaker 4: going to pivot more towards helping with the whole thing, 656 00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:58,680 Speaker 4: which is a different type of edge. I think that 657 00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:02,840 Speaker 4: the ability to use these tools is going to be 658 00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:07,400 Speaker 4: an edge in and of itself. So notwithstanding, coding is 659 00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:12,200 Speaker 4: going to be easier, and there will be multiples. More like, 660 00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:15,520 Speaker 4: the ability to build technology is going to become more 661 00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:18,960 Speaker 4: and not less important, even if the frictions to build 662 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:23,360 Speaker 4: technology go down. I would argue I was at a 663 00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:26,960 Speaker 4: conference and someone asked me, like, who would you like 664 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,000 Speaker 4: to hire coming out of university, And I said English majors. 665 00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:33,759 Speaker 4: And that was a big mistake because then like thousands 666 00:41:33,760 --> 00:41:36,480 Speaker 4: of people emailed me that they're children, their child's an 667 00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:39,440 Speaker 4: English major. Well, I speak to them. But the reason 668 00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:42,040 Speaker 4: I said English majors, and I believe this, like we're 669 00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:46,359 Speaker 4: living through a time where those who could have imagination 670 00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:52,839 Speaker 4: and articulated the ability to implement that has never been 671 00:41:52,880 --> 00:41:56,080 Speaker 4: as fast. Yeah, and literally if it used to be 672 00:41:56,280 --> 00:42:02,000 Speaker 4: like years, now it's like days. So the ability to 673 00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:06,600 Speaker 4: have those ideas, the implementability of those ideas is going 674 00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:10,400 Speaker 4: to be different than any point, so that creativity and imagination. 675 00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:16,799 Speaker 4: And then lastly, obviously the world is becoming very complicated. 676 00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:24,080 Speaker 4: I've heard you basically have these this collision between national security, 677 00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:31,239 Speaker 4: technology and capital. You have this fragmentation of geopolitics. You 678 00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:34,799 Speaker 4: have the changing demographics of the world. You have what's 679 00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:38,279 Speaker 4: happening with this alien technology that's now been found on 680 00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:43,480 Speaker 4: the planet Earth. So if you think about the global 681 00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:49,640 Speaker 4: connectivity that's required to really manage portfolios and how geopolitics 682 00:42:49,719 --> 00:42:54,279 Speaker 4: is going to implement within portfolios going forward, I think 683 00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:57,600 Speaker 4: that requires like on the ground networks as much as 684 00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:01,799 Speaker 4: it requires technology. And it's interesting. I'm sure you guys 685 00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:05,920 Speaker 4: have had a similar experience. I read the paper, I 686 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:09,040 Speaker 4: read Bloomberg, thank you, I watch a lot of stuff. 687 00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:13,600 Speaker 4: But when you talk to and I was actually supposed 688 00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:18,040 Speaker 4: to be traveling last week in the Gulf region and 689 00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:21,719 Speaker 4: instead I did a virtual tour. When you speak to 690 00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:25,279 Speaker 4: our clients there, you get a very different picture of 691 00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:28,520 Speaker 4: what's going on than what you're reading, and I think 692 00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:32,120 Speaker 4: those networks are going to become more important in terms 693 00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:36,800 Speaker 4: of edge as we look forward. Nothing will replace being 694 00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:37,520 Speaker 4: on the ground. 695 00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,720 Speaker 2: Well, actually, on that note, you're in a position where 696 00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:47,360 Speaker 2: you're hiring people constantly for very specific roles. Are the processes. 697 00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:50,359 Speaker 2: Are the questions that you're asking people now different in 698 00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:53,000 Speaker 2: the age of AI versus what they were like four 699 00:43:53,080 --> 00:43:53,560 Speaker 2: years ago? 700 00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:57,560 Speaker 4: It's interesting, I hope so I know the questions I'm 701 00:43:57,640 --> 00:44:01,160 Speaker 4: asking people are. I hope that set scale. Maybe I 702 00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:04,920 Speaker 4: should follow up on that, but the questions I'm asking 703 00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:10,400 Speaker 4: I couldn't be more excited about the opportunities ahead for 704 00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:16,360 Speaker 4: black Rock, but I couldn't be more aware of the 705 00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:22,719 Speaker 4: requirement in today's world everything needs to be reimagined and 706 00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:26,400 Speaker 4: what we need and what I think leaders are going 707 00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:29,040 Speaker 4: to be faced with. And ironically, I think a lot 708 00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:33,120 Speaker 4: of the reimagination is going to come bottom up. But 709 00:44:34,560 --> 00:44:39,040 Speaker 4: how do you reimagine what you do? How do you 710 00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:42,680 Speaker 4: reimagine how you grow? How do you reimagine how you 711 00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:48,280 Speaker 4: interact with clients in this new world? And I think 712 00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:53,560 Speaker 4: that again, I don't think that's started. I think right 713 00:44:53,600 --> 00:44:55,960 Speaker 4: now it's a bit of a brain teaser, a lot 714 00:44:55,960 --> 00:45:01,600 Speaker 4: of experiments, but it has not started. Most every great company, 715 00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:04,840 Speaker 4: if you walk in in the year twenty thirty, is 716 00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:08,520 Speaker 4: going to be fundamentally different than today. And the way 717 00:45:08,560 --> 00:45:13,440 Speaker 4: I think of this, this is not an overnight reimagination, 718 00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:17,520 Speaker 4: but it's not a five year reimagination. It's somewhere in 719 00:45:17,600 --> 00:45:18,479 Speaker 4: between those two. 720 00:45:18,719 --> 00:45:20,040 Speaker 3: You know, we said in the beginning we could go 721 00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:21,840 Speaker 3: for hours, and there's a million other things that we 722 00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:24,719 Speaker 3: could ask. One last question on my mind, I've been 723 00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:28,160 Speaker 3: I'm trying. I've asked this version to a few different people, 724 00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:31,000 Speaker 3: and it maybe kind of relates to the other kind 725 00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:34,320 Speaker 3: of tokens tokenization, but just the same, it's going to 726 00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:38,920 Speaker 3: get confusing. You really an already so there's a. 727 00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:40,440 Speaker 4: Well, can I just say one thing before you ask 728 00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:44,120 Speaker 4: you a question? It's going to get confusing, it already is. 729 00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:50,840 Speaker 4: But importantly, AI and digital assets, yeah, are very related topics, 730 00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:53,000 Speaker 4: extremely related topics. 731 00:45:53,040 --> 00:45:54,880 Speaker 3: Well this kind of maybe maybe you can fold that 732 00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:57,799 Speaker 3: into the answer here. But you know, like an interesting thing, 733 00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:00,279 Speaker 3: there's a lot of very exciting private company is that 734 00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:04,040 Speaker 3: people want it get access to, but in many cases 735 00:46:04,080 --> 00:46:06,440 Speaker 3: are already kind of traded in some way, and there 736 00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:10,279 Speaker 3: might be like these SPVs that people have already, or 737 00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:13,040 Speaker 3: some token somewhere that trades on hyper liquid on the 738 00:46:13,080 --> 00:46:17,279 Speaker 3: weekend that represents somehow shares of anthropic or whatever. You 739 00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:22,560 Speaker 3: need other hobbies, But I'm curious from your perspective. And 740 00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:25,400 Speaker 3: another as thing that relates to this is the disclosure 741 00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:29,120 Speaker 3: obligations for existing public companies seem like they're going to 742 00:46:29,200 --> 00:46:31,360 Speaker 3: come down over time, and maybe companies will only have 743 00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:33,759 Speaker 3: to report every six months or a year, maybe never, 744 00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:36,480 Speaker 3: Like will there always be a bright line between what's 745 00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:38,960 Speaker 3: a public and what's a private asset? Or is it 746 00:46:39,080 --> 00:46:43,120 Speaker 3: just going to be this spectrum of liquidity and disclosure 747 00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:46,760 Speaker 3: but no clear definition of what it means anymore between 748 00:46:46,840 --> 00:46:47,680 Speaker 3: public and private. 749 00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:51,120 Speaker 4: It's a great question. I think over time it'll be 750 00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:54,840 Speaker 4: more of a spectrum. I think that when I look 751 00:46:55,239 --> 00:47:00,680 Speaker 4: at the broad industry over the past multiple decades, the 752 00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:06,560 Speaker 4: lines one of the defining themes. The lines almost across 753 00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:09,800 Speaker 4: everything you could imagine, have been getting more and more blurry, 754 00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:13,360 Speaker 4: And I would argue that's been because of technology. So 755 00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:16,920 Speaker 4: if you think about the old style boxes that existed, 756 00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:22,360 Speaker 4: they were convenience technologies because you couldn't bottom up model things. 757 00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:27,200 Speaker 4: You basically said, okay, mid cap equities have this attribute, 758 00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:30,359 Speaker 4: and like, that's a lego piece as opposed to let 759 00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:33,759 Speaker 4: me model what the individual stocks are and then I 760 00:47:33,800 --> 00:47:36,319 Speaker 4: could think of it in the context of a whole portfolio. 761 00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:41,880 Speaker 4: So I think that what's happening is that technology is 762 00:47:42,040 --> 00:47:48,360 Speaker 4: enabling those lines to be less discreet and more blurry 763 00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:54,239 Speaker 4: across spectrums and across how do clients build portfolios? How 764 00:47:54,239 --> 00:47:58,000 Speaker 4: did these lego pieces get put together to actually achieve 765 00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:02,600 Speaker 4: their objectives. I think that there's a lot going on 766 00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:06,800 Speaker 4: embedded in your question, including you see, and to me, 767 00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:09,279 Speaker 4: this is one of the most remarkable things that is 768 00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:14,000 Speaker 4: happening is that two three, four years ago the whole 769 00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:17,600 Speaker 4: narrative was private for longer. And certainly I don't know 770 00:48:17,640 --> 00:48:20,240 Speaker 4: how this is true that there's fewer public companies today 771 00:48:20,239 --> 00:48:25,040 Speaker 4: that when I started. I've checked it it's actually true, 772 00:48:25,080 --> 00:48:28,480 Speaker 4: because I didn't believe it, But you wonder, like, how 773 00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:32,120 Speaker 4: is that possible? Now that said, the flip side of 774 00:48:32,160 --> 00:48:36,399 Speaker 4: it is, you see, for these companies like open Ai 775 00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:40,520 Speaker 4: and propic space, they're raced to go public because at 776 00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:44,400 Speaker 4: some point the public markets provide a lot of value 777 00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:48,080 Speaker 4: propositions that are beyond what the private markets can provide. 778 00:48:48,520 --> 00:48:50,759 Speaker 4: So I think you see this sort of tale of 779 00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:55,400 Speaker 4: two cities that's happening. But there will be a spectrum, 780 00:48:55,920 --> 00:49:03,839 Speaker 4: including a spectrum of certain end investors and institutions that 781 00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:09,160 Speaker 4: want to have a digital wallet and certain end investors 782 00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:13,440 Speaker 4: and institutions that want to have a traditional custody account. 783 00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:17,080 Speaker 4: And it's not a binary thing. It's about technology enabling 784 00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:18,280 Speaker 4: that personalization. 785 00:49:19,800 --> 00:49:22,160 Speaker 2: I have one more question, sort of a wild card, 786 00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:26,360 Speaker 2: but what do you and Larry Fink disagree about the most? 787 00:49:26,400 --> 00:49:28,880 Speaker 2: And the reason I ask is no, I'm genuinely interested. 788 00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:32,319 Speaker 2: You've been working alongside each other for years and years 789 00:49:32,360 --> 00:49:35,680 Speaker 2: and years now. I have a personal interest in close collaborative. 790 00:49:35,160 --> 00:49:37,319 Speaker 3: Yeah, I disagree on a lot. So it's a really 791 00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:38,080 Speaker 3: legit question. 792 00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:44,319 Speaker 4: I would say often we both see things similarly in 793 00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:48,239 Speaker 4: terms of the endpoint. Larry is more of a tomorrow 794 00:49:49,080 --> 00:49:53,840 Speaker 4: person and I'm more of a well there's work to 795 00:49:53,880 --> 00:49:56,000 Speaker 4: do here, this is going to take a few years. 796 00:49:56,160 --> 00:49:59,200 Speaker 4: I would say that that's typically it. 797 00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:03,920 Speaker 2: Area is a Joe and I'm a raw guess. All right, 798 00:50:04,239 --> 00:50:05,600 Speaker 2: Rob Goldstein, thank you so much. 799 00:50:05,480 --> 00:50:08,439 Speaker 4: For coming on. Thought that was great, Yeah, that was great. 800 00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:10,200 Speaker 4: Thank you. So much pleasure. 801 00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:23,239 Speaker 3: Yeah, joke. 802 00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:26,480 Speaker 2: That was a really fun conversation and a lot to 803 00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:29,080 Speaker 2: think about. I mean, I do think when we're talking 804 00:50:29,120 --> 00:50:32,520 Speaker 2: about moats around some of these businesses. You brought up 805 00:50:32,640 --> 00:50:36,080 Speaker 2: the power dynamics law very early on, and it does 806 00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:39,000 Speaker 2: feel like a lot of the moat is basically size 807 00:50:39,120 --> 00:50:42,000 Speaker 2: and data and capability that you have. And I can't 808 00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:45,000 Speaker 2: imagine that. You hear this. You hear people saying that 809 00:50:45,040 --> 00:50:47,640 Speaker 2: they're like vibe coding a bunch of different programs and 810 00:50:47,680 --> 00:50:50,080 Speaker 2: they all look kind of interesting and cool, but like, 811 00:50:50,480 --> 00:50:53,680 Speaker 2: it's hard for me to imagine a big moat around 812 00:50:53,719 --> 00:50:56,600 Speaker 2: those businesses if you've just like plugged in a few 813 00:50:56,600 --> 00:50:58,239 Speaker 2: instructions into plod code. 814 00:50:58,040 --> 00:51:01,879 Speaker 3: And no one is going to be putting anything of 815 00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:05,319 Speaker 3: importance or sensitivity to some homemade right. 816 00:51:05,480 --> 00:51:08,640 Speaker 5: I mean, that's that's that's what was interesting, this idea 817 00:51:08,680 --> 00:51:13,200 Speaker 5: that actually the regulatory mode around finance actually becomes a 818 00:51:13,320 --> 00:51:15,800 Speaker 5: valuable thing in the age of AI totally. 819 00:51:16,040 --> 00:51:19,520 Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting to not really AI related, but 820 00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:23,880 Speaker 3: the idea of being able to provide, you know, provide 821 00:51:23,920 --> 00:51:28,439 Speaker 3: a solution all of portfolio visibility. Yeah, what is one 822 00:51:28,560 --> 00:51:32,920 Speaker 3: reason why the big get bigger within finance. One reason 823 00:51:33,200 --> 00:51:36,920 Speaker 3: is because only a really large entity would have the 824 00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:40,080 Speaker 3: capacity to be able to like, and here's you know 825 00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:42,160 Speaker 3: what we can offer you with private credit, and here's 826 00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:44,239 Speaker 3: what we can offer you with index right, et cetera. 827 00:51:44,520 --> 00:51:48,680 Speaker 3: So Okay, the end investor has this big portfolio consisting 828 00:51:48,719 --> 00:51:52,600 Speaker 3: of lots of different types of asset classes. As he mentioned, historically, 829 00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:55,920 Speaker 3: the industry has sort of been verticalized by asset class. 830 00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:59,200 Speaker 3: If you want some entity that has how do all 831 00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:01,960 Speaker 3: the puzzle pieces fit together, which is the essence of 832 00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:05,200 Speaker 3: portfolio construction, then theoretically you just want like a really 833 00:52:05,200 --> 00:52:07,960 Speaker 3: big company that understands all of it. 834 00:52:08,080 --> 00:52:08,360 Speaker 4: Yeah. 835 00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:10,799 Speaker 3: I also thought and it was kind of also on 836 00:52:10,840 --> 00:52:14,840 Speaker 3: the source of edge question is we've talked about this before. 837 00:52:15,120 --> 00:52:17,040 Speaker 3: It always seems like one of the fun jobs in 838 00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:20,279 Speaker 3: finance would be the channel check person, the person who 839 00:52:20,280 --> 00:52:23,120 Speaker 3: goes to the mall to yeah the field Yeah, the 840 00:52:23,120 --> 00:52:25,680 Speaker 3: field trips is like, okay, how many sweaters are on 841 00:52:25,719 --> 00:52:29,760 Speaker 3: the gap shelf whatever, Maybe that becomes even more valuable 842 00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:32,640 Speaker 3: because it's like things that have not yet been put into. 843 00:52:32,440 --> 00:52:33,480 Speaker 2: A mallel Yeah. 844 00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:36,760 Speaker 3: And look, I love that people listen to odd laws. 845 00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:39,560 Speaker 3: I love that people read the news particularly financial news 846 00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:43,280 Speaker 3: on Bloomberg. I've never thought by and large that people 847 00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:46,520 Speaker 3: read an article and it's like I'm gonna make an 848 00:52:46,520 --> 00:52:49,520 Speaker 3: investment decision based on that. Hopefully it helps inform their 849 00:52:49,520 --> 00:52:51,600 Speaker 3: thinking or their processes in some way. But no one 850 00:52:51,880 --> 00:52:54,680 Speaker 3: listens to a podcast and then like goes out like 851 00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:57,319 Speaker 3: buys the stock, buy and large. But it's because once 852 00:52:57,360 --> 00:52:59,880 Speaker 3: it's out there in like the digital world, it's like 853 00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:02,120 Speaker 3: it's kind of priced him already. So there's going to 854 00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:06,160 Speaker 3: be the intense hunt for information that is like truly 855 00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:08,560 Speaker 3: like has not been put into the model yet. 856 00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:11,759 Speaker 2: You're such an EMHs purist. It's amazing, but right, like. 857 00:53:11,719 --> 00:53:15,439 Speaker 3: The value of people who can find information that has 858 00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:18,840 Speaker 3: not turned into trade training data yet for a model, 859 00:53:19,239 --> 00:53:22,040 Speaker 3: that data is going to get like super valuable and 860 00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:25,080 Speaker 3: maybe more valuable and more reason to like just like 861 00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:26,839 Speaker 3: get out on the road and stuff like that. 862 00:53:26,960 --> 00:53:29,320 Speaker 2: No, I largely agree with that. The other thing I 863 00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:31,680 Speaker 2: thought was really interesting, and it gets to your last 864 00:53:31,719 --> 00:53:34,840 Speaker 2: question was the sort of melding of public and private markets. 865 00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:36,560 Speaker 2: And it's also what I was kind of getting at 866 00:53:36,600 --> 00:53:40,000 Speaker 2: with the whole portfolio thing. If all these private assets 867 00:53:40,719 --> 00:53:44,400 Speaker 2: are tokenized and treated in the same way in a portfolio, 868 00:53:44,719 --> 00:53:46,879 Speaker 2: or at least visible in a portfolio in the same 869 00:53:46,920 --> 00:53:50,120 Speaker 2: way as a public asset would be. It seems like 870 00:53:50,160 --> 00:53:52,200 Speaker 2: that distinction starts to get really really pleasing. 871 00:53:52,360 --> 00:53:54,560 Speaker 3: Totally right, not to go back to a point that 872 00:53:54,600 --> 00:53:57,480 Speaker 3: I just made, but on this like I think we're 873 00:53:57,480 --> 00:53:58,200 Speaker 3: actually already. 874 00:53:57,960 --> 00:53:59,840 Speaker 2: Saying I'm sorry, I moved on too quickly. 875 00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:02,560 Speaker 3: Just this just click to me too. But it's like, okay, 876 00:54:03,239 --> 00:54:05,520 Speaker 3: where are we go? Like there, maybe there'll be more 877 00:54:05,600 --> 00:54:07,880 Speaker 3: value in like people who go out on the road 878 00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:10,839 Speaker 3: and get information that's not on the model. We saw 879 00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:13,600 Speaker 3: this recently with all the people going crazy for Sutrini's 880 00:54:13,600 --> 00:54:16,640 Speaker 3: analyst in the straight up Hoore Moves and this idea 881 00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:19,720 Speaker 3: that like field trips out to the world to collect 882 00:54:19,719 --> 00:54:22,200 Speaker 3: information that has not been digitized yet, it is going 883 00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:24,720 Speaker 3: to be where all the action is. Like it feels 884 00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:26,200 Speaker 3: like that's gonna be a big thing. 885 00:54:26,280 --> 00:54:28,520 Speaker 2: No, it sounds trite, but I feel like the pendulum 886 00:54:28,719 --> 00:54:31,600 Speaker 2: has swung from you know, for the past twenty years, 887 00:54:31,719 --> 00:54:35,160 Speaker 2: if you were a smart person who could think in 888 00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:39,160 Speaker 2: terms of numbers and code, you were probably very valued 889 00:54:39,160 --> 00:54:42,120 Speaker 2: by society. And now the pendulum sort of swings to 890 00:54:42,520 --> 00:54:48,920 Speaker 2: those on the ground relationship building, social skills. It's it's 891 00:54:48,960 --> 00:54:50,160 Speaker 2: an interesting transition. 892 00:54:50,160 --> 00:54:52,239 Speaker 3: It's an interesting time. All right, shall we leave it there, 893 00:54:52,320 --> 00:54:53,000 Speaker 3: Let's save it there. 894 00:54:53,160 --> 00:54:55,600 Speaker 2: This has been another episode of the Authoughts podcast. I'm 895 00:54:55,600 --> 00:54:58,440 Speaker 2: Tracy Alloway. You can follow me at Tracy Alloway and. 896 00:54:58,440 --> 00:55:01,120 Speaker 3: I'm Jill Wise and Thought. You can follow at the Stalwart. 897 00:55:01,360 --> 00:55:05,000 Speaker 3: Follow our producers Carmen Rodriguez at Carman Arman, Dashel Bennett 898 00:55:05,000 --> 00:55:08,919 Speaker 3: at Dashbot, Kelbrooks at Kelbrooks and Kevin Lozano at Kevin 899 00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:11,600 Speaker 3: Lloyd Lozano. 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