“The future is NOW!” Chip proclaimed from atop the television station’s satellite dish. “Soon every American home will integrate their television, phone and computer. You’ll be able to visit the Louvre on one channel or watch female mud wrestling on another. You can do your shopping from home or play Mortal Kombat with your friend in Vietnam. There’s no end to the possibilities!”
No end, indeed. It made me laugh thinking about that old technology as the future. The scene is from 1996’s “The Cable Guy” and vengeful Chip, likely afflicted with borderline personality disorder, was played by Jim Carrey.
I recalled that clip after spending 5 straight hours without getting up (or blinking really) from the table as I was hunched over my laptop running an AI application builder. With my son over my right shoulder, I was creating a very ambitious application to help him translate plain language into code to build a somewhat open-world role-playing video game. This is now known as “vibe coding” and is for those of us with absolutely no coding experience. Our crusade had us going to various AI apps to render graphics, turn those graphics into 3D images and to converse with LLMs or large-language models. By the time we went to bed, we had the makings, or at least the C++ code, of a character creator, 3 towns full of non-playable characters with coordinated behaviors milling about their shops, an array of enemy bosses, armor sets, magical spells, and a lovable cast of characters all bent on saving the realm from attack and reviving the princess who had been poisoned. In the last couple of days, we’ve yet to be able to turn that into a usable experience but believe we’re on the right track. And that is absolutely nuts for two people who have the anti-Midas touch with computers …
Like Chip said, “The future is NOW!” You can’t open YouTube without seeing all the AI content whether it’s evolutionary theorists and computer programmers debating the level of disruption it will cause, or the doomsayers going on the record with their predictions of the downfall of humanity. The AI is thrilling and transformative for those that have used it to great effect, beyond frightening for those in the workforce and utterly captivating a topic as there is to engage the mind, the heart and the soul. This AI is absolutely enthralling (when it works). My son is in an absolute frenzy and quivers with his excitement as he sees his dreams translated so quickly into reality. Yesterday at lunch he was passionately writing and recording the battle music for in-game clashes on his electronic piano. He cannot speak of anything else.
The issue is just how enthralling it is. It is becoming very clear to us, very quickly, that this technology can and will be used at every turn and for so many different purposes.
I mentioned the mind, the heart and the soul. It’s important to remember those and the values that we have as we’re already hip-deep in this new future. I can already tell after using the mesmerizing technology for just a couple of weeks that it would be all too easy to forget what’s important to us.
Speaking of values, we’ve gone to great lengths as an Investment Committee to provide an option, for those so inclined, to have their retirement accounts managed to their Christian Values. If that is something important to you, then please ask us about it. We have both growth and income models as well as more tax-efficient strategies that all can be managed in accordance with those values, because we felt that you shouldn’t have to sacrifice your wealth and potential gains to invest according to your beliefs nor should you have to invest in companies that are acting in opposition to your beliefs. Let me state for the record, that there’s plenty of technology exposure in the Christian Values portfolio as well, so don’t think you have to be in all slow-growing food, consumer staples and insurance stocks or “cockroach” stocks as they are called (companies that will still be around even if all crumbles around them).
This investment strategy is just an option; we aren’t telling everyone they have to invest this way. We have plenty of growth, income and tax-efficient strategies that don’t adhere to Christian Values.
On Wednesday our Investment Committee went through the performance and the future outlook for all the stocks in the Christian Values Portfolio and replaced 5 of them where their outlook wasn’t as good as the replacement candidates we vetted. So, please know that we’re constantly seeking continuous improvement and are ever concerned about our clients’ outcomes. For those of you who have entrusted your life savings to us, we exercise the Duty of Care as we call it and want to exceed that threshold whenever we can.
If you’d like to know more about this, please call and talk to our AI agents. Because we programmed them, we can promise that they will take good care of you from here on out. I’m afraid that now we’ve configured the AI, we’ve all “just been sacked, and those who are responsible for the sacking have just been sacked”. I hope I’m just kidding …
But seriously now, give us a call and speak to a live human on the phone. We of flesh and bone and hearts and minds and souls stand ready to assist you and would like to remind you that too much YouTube is bad for everyone. Who knows now if it was a person or AI that produced what you are watching? Who, or what, are you going to empower to guide you through your financial world? Who, or what, will help inform your opinions, view of the future and steer the actions you will take?
For as long as you listen to these humans, we’ll change your financial world …
Sincerely,
AI Scott Wright
The WTA Investment Committee
