this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
260 points (90.1% liked)

Technology

60133 readers
3014 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

It is 'nearly unavoidable' that AI will cause a financial crash within a decade, SEC head says::undefined

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While that's really interesting, there was a lot more at play than a pricing algorithm. It was a culmination of a lot of things, starting with Cash for Clunkers that had a huge impact on the used car market. Then there were a ton of supply chain issues during COVID that squeezed the new car market. Probably some other factors I'm not aware of, too.

[โ€“] RickRussell_CA 1 points 1 year ago

Right, my point is that relying on pricing algorithms when faced with novel "black swan" conditions nearly drove major used car dealers out of business. Obviously, the algorithm didn't cause the novel conditions, but neither did they buffer the effects. Instead, they accelerated the financial effects.

If you go back and read about Carvana before the pandemic, their big selling point to investors was that their algorithms were "smarter" than the competition and would realize more consistent profits for the company and their investors. When it became clear that these "smart" algorithms went insane, investors abandoned the company and their valuation dropped from $60 billion to $7.5 billion between 2021 and 2023. Carvana has narrowly avoided bankruptcy.