investing etc. 0002

AI, law firms, PZ Cussons, FW Thorpe, Big Ben, dividend shares

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My investing sidekick is an AI

Entries in Cambridge University’s Creative Writing Competition require three submissions, one written unaided, one created by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and edited by the contestant, and one written in collaboration with the AI. Presumably, academics are working out which approach produces the best writing.

My money is on collaboration, because I am a collaborator.

I have been using AI and the data in SharePad to learn about unfamiliar industries. Last week I turned these tools on listed law firms. It was a horror-show.

More on AI in a second, first a couple of other companies that may interest you...

Scoring two inspiring British businesses

Meanwhile, on Interactive Investor I scored PZ Cussons. 

The company that makes Carex is evolving into a certified B Corp, requiring it to meet high social and environmental standards. If it succeeds and also grows profitably, it will have demonstrated that profit and purpose are complementary, a shining example to other capitalists.

I also scored commercial lighting firm FW Thorpe. It does not have B Corp status either (no UK listed firm currently does), but it is brimming with profit and purpose.

Good companies sometimes do remarkable things. In this year’s annual report FW Thorpe tells how it lit Big Ben, inside and out. 

More to the point, this responsible business ticks all the boxes as an investment.

Talking of boxes, back to AI...

What’s in the black box?

Crazily, nobody knows exactly how AIs produce their astonishing if only half right output, seemingly not even the programmers. 

Here's my five step plan to prize the black box open slightly:

Step 1: Use an AI. Try Bard, Bing/Co-pilot, and ChatGPT.

Step 2: Look at this visual explainer from the Guardian

Step 3: Listen to How I is AI, a recent edition of the Infinite Monkey Cage. It’s great

Step 4: Read this treatise on mathematician Stephen Wolfram's blog. It starts easy and gets harder. Don’t sweat if you don’t make it to the end, I didn’t.

Step 5: Read The Road to Conscious Machines, my top pick from all the AI books I’ve flicked through in Waterstones recently.

Not my bookshelf, it’s Waterstones’. Will AI replace us? Questions like this put the cart before the horse. We don't even know what it is.

Dividend share recommendations

Emails are always welcome, please send them to richard@beddard.net. 

ML emailed asking for four or five share recommendations. He is a retired income seeker with a large portfolio.

Sadly, I can’t recommend investments. I publish my scores and let readers make up their minds. Doubly sadly for ML, I don’t score shares for dividend income.

While they might not be able to give personal advice, Roland Head and John Kingham run model income portfolios. There are bound to be good ideas in the research they share.