A fictional investment fund created by chatbot ChatGPT has outperformed the 10 most popular funds in the UK over the past two months, personal finance comparison site Finder has claimed.
Finder says the collection of 38 stock recommendations has seen the fund rise 4.9% since it was created on 6 March. In comparison, the UK’s 10 most popular funds have collectively lost 0.8% in value over the same time period. The ChatGPT fund includes a range of UK, US and global funds.
Finder said the fund has led the real funds for 34 of the 37 market days of its lifespan so far, with the widest gap occurring on 4 April when ChatGPT was up 4.7% and real funds were down 1.9%.
To create the fund, Finder asked ChatGPT to create a portfolio of stocks that followed a range of investing principles taken from leading funds. It ended up picking 38 stocks, with the top performers being Meta, up almost 30%, Microsoft, up 20%, and Intel Corporation, up nearly 18%.
Nearly a fifth (19%) of UK adults have said they would consider getting financial advice from ChatGPT, while a further 8% said they have already taken financial advice from it. The figure was significantly higher among younger generations, with 28% of millennials and 23% of gen Z stating that they would consider using the software for financial advice.
Around a third (35%) said they would not consider getting financial advice from the platform, while 38% were still unsure what ChatGPT was.
Jon Ostler, CEO of Finder, said it “won’t be long” before large numbers of consumers try to use the software for financial gain.
“The big question is how bad of an idea using ChatGPT for investing research currently would be. Big funds have increasingly been using AI for years, but the public using a rudimentary AI platform that openly says its data is patchy since September 2021 and lacks the intricacies of market psychology, doesn’t sound like a good idea.
“Yet a white paper we did in 2021 found that half of British investors use social media to get investing advice, and a fifth only use social media. Would you rather get your advice from an unqualified tik tok star or AI that is capable of processing millions of data points from around the web and giving tailored advice?”
Ostler said that while sourcing a qualified adviser may be the most sensible option today, that may not always be the case.
“The democratisation of AI seems to be something that will disrupt and revolutionise financial industries although it is far too early for consumers to get carried away when it comes to their own finances. However, fund managers may be starting to look nervously over their shoulders – especially with ChatGPT funds like ours currently outperforming many of them.”
