Former MIT professor and current Fundamental Research Labs CEO Robert Yang wants to build a network of agents that operates like a hedge fund, with analysts researching companies and a portfolio manager coordinating the work. After managing 50 agents at once across seven monitors (which he called a terrible user experience), his goal is to give investors one agent that coordinates the others, with a system they can adapt to their own process.

Robert and Brett discuss where investment research is headed as AI takes on more of the analyst’s work, how investors’ roles could change, and why Brett is joining FRL to help build it.

Timestamps:
[00:00] Intro
[00:43] Why Robert Wanted to Build AI Before It Was Popular
[08:40] Running an MIT Lab and Questioning the Work
[14:05] The Agent Research That Pushed Him to Leave
[19:20] Project Sid: Building a Society of 1,000 Agents
[22:18] The Search Party Nobody Programmed
[26:58] From Minecraft to Excel Agents for Wall Street
[33:05] Going Viral Wasn’t Enough: Making Shortcut Work
[37:28] Why Hedge Fund Analysts Became the Customer
[41:51] From an Excel Agent to an Investment Team
[45:51] Why Nobody Wants to Manage 50 Agent Threads
[50:12] How Close Are We to a Digital Hedge Fund Analyst?
[53:52] The Problem with AI That Always Agrees
[56:50] Teaching an Agent to Hold an Investment View
[1:04:29] When Analysts Start Working More Like PMs
[1:06:29] Brett’s Role: Training the Digital Analyst
[1:09:07] If AI Frees Up Your Time, Where Does It Go?
[1:11:34] What This Means for FE and Invest with AI

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How a Network of Agents Can Run a Hedge Fund

Invest with AI

How a Network of Agents Can Run a Hedge Fund