Using AI to Find Investing Stories with Perscient Co-Founder Ben Hunt
Episode
99 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Investing, Startups, Fundraising & VC
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Narrative Machine Technology: Persient processes everything published globally—newspapers, transcripts, websites in all languages—using large language models constrained by human-directed context engineering. The system achieved 100x improvement in signal detection by transitioning from handcrafted small language models to AI-powered semantic signature tracking across multiple languages.
- ✓Context Engineering Over Prompting: Successful AI implementation requires controlling all inputs and outputs, not asking open-ended questions. Users must provide the data, define allowed thought processes, and validate results through secondary AI systems. This constraint prevents hallucination and ensures consistent, reproducible answers for the same inputs.
- ✓Discovery Phase Alpha Generation: Value investors make the most money during the discovery phase when markets wake up to undervalued assets. Persient tracks when dormant narratives resurface in media, identifying approximately twelve core stories per sector that repeat with different company names, allowing investors to time entry before widespread recognition.
- ✓Forward Guidance as Primary Policy Tool: Central banks shifted from traditional monetary policy to using coordinated communication as their main toolkit starting in 2009. Bernanke admitted in his valedictory address that forward guidance worked better than quantitative easing, fundamentally changing how markets respond to policy and making narrative tracking essential.
- ✓Immigration Narrative Reversal: Data shows significant decline in anti-immigration sentiment and increase in pro-immigration stories across all political affiliations since October 2024, contradicting policy direction and social media perception. This disconnect between actual public opinion measured through comprehensive media analysis versus perceived sentiment suggests potential political realignment in upcoming midterm elections.
What It Covers
Ben Hunt, cofounder of Persient, explains how his company uses AI to process 200+ billion tokens of global media to identify emerging market narratives before they become mainstream, tracking semantic patterns across thousands of stories in multiple languages.
Key Questions Answered
- •Narrative Machine Technology: Persient processes everything published globally—newspapers, transcripts, websites in all languages—using large language models constrained by human-directed context engineering. The system achieved 100x improvement in signal detection by transitioning from handcrafted small language models to AI-powered semantic signature tracking across multiple languages.
- •Context Engineering Over Prompting: Successful AI implementation requires controlling all inputs and outputs, not asking open-ended questions. Users must provide the data, define allowed thought processes, and validate results through secondary AI systems. This constraint prevents hallucination and ensures consistent, reproducible answers for the same inputs.
- •Discovery Phase Alpha Generation: Value investors make the most money during the discovery phase when markets wake up to undervalued assets. Persient tracks when dormant narratives resurface in media, identifying approximately twelve core stories per sector that repeat with different company names, allowing investors to time entry before widespread recognition.
- •Forward Guidance as Primary Policy Tool: Central banks shifted from traditional monetary policy to using coordinated communication as their main toolkit starting in 2009. Bernanke admitted in his valedictory address that forward guidance worked better than quantitative easing, fundamentally changing how markets respond to policy and making narrative tracking essential.
- •Immigration Narrative Reversal: Data shows significant decline in anti-immigration sentiment and increase in pro-immigration stories across all political affiliations since October 2024, contradicting policy direction and social media perception. This disconnect between actual public opinion measured through comprehensive media analysis versus perceived sentiment suggests potential political realignment in upcoming midterm elections.
Notable Moment
Hunt reveals that tracking domestic Russian media before the Ukraine invasion showed clear mobilization of public opinion for full-scale war, not a limited operation. The semantic signatures in Russian-language publications predicted the scope of invasion when Western analysts expected containment, demonstrating how narrative analysis provides geopolitical intelligence.
Episode Transcript
I'm Hannah Fry. And as we rely more and more on artificial intelligence in every facet of our lives and businesses, I'm on a mission to find out how we can build the Internet that AI needs. Learn more later in the podcast. With Volley from iShares, you get access to both monthly income and growth potential in one simple ETF. It's the best of both worlds. Discover Volley, iShares large cap premium income active ETF. IShares, the market is yours. Visit www.ishares.com to view a prospectus for investment objectives, risks, fees, expenses, and other information that you should read and consider carefully before investing. Risks include principal loss and the use of derivatives, which could increase risks and volatility. Monthly income is not guaranteed. Prepare by BlackRock Investments LLC. Support for the show comes from Public. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index, and lets you back test it against the S and P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com/market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com/market. Paid for by Public Investing, brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA and SIPC, advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC registered adviser, generated assets as an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com/disclosures. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. This is Masters in Business with Barry Ritholtz on Bloomberg Radio. On the latest Masters in Business podcast, what a fascinating conversation. I sit down with Ben Hunt. He, writes Epsilon Theory, but he is also the president and cofounder of Persient. What a fascinating, analytics story they've put together. They essentially take feeds of everything that's published around the world, whether it's in English or Chinese or Russian. They create these large language models and use artificial intelligence to identify rising narratives. In other words, they're looking for the things that will become story lines, but haven't quite hit that yet. I found this conversation to be absolutely fascinating, and I think you will also. With no further ado, my conversation with Persians, Ben Hunt. Ben Hunt, welcome to Bloomberg. Thanks for having me. Well, this is I love the intro. I gotta have you at all my events. That's right. I'm I'm available for hire. I can introduce you at at, weddings, bar mitzvahs, wherever you're giving a toast, I'll be happy to …
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“Ben Hunt, cofounder of Persient, explains how his company uses AI to process 200+ billion tokens of global media to identify emerging market narratives before they become mainstream”
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