JPMorgan is developing a ChatGPT-like AI investment advisor
Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, is planning his first visit to mainland China in four years as the US bank prepares to hold three conferences in Shanghai in late May.
Julia Marchi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase is developing a ChatGPT-like software service that relies on a disruptive form of artificial intelligence to screen client investments, CNBC has learned.
The company filed a trademark application for a product called IndexGPT this month, according to a filing with the New York-based bank.
IndexGPT will leverage “cloud computing software using artificial intelligence” to “analyze and select securities tailored to client needs,” according to the filing.
The viral success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology last year has forced entire industries to grapple with the arrival of artificial intelligence. ChatGPT, which uses massive language models to create human-sounding answers to questions, has sparked an arms race among tech giants and chipmakers over what is seen as the next fundamental innovation.
The technology has a range of possible uses in finance. The banks of which Goldman Sachs And Morgan Stanley have already started testing it for internal use. This includes ways to help Goldman engineers create code or answer questions from Morgan Stanley financial advisors.
First mover?
But JPMorgan could be the first financial player to offer a GPT-like product directly to its clients, according to Washington DC-based trademark attorney Josh Gerben.
“It’s a real indication that they might have a potential product to launch in the near future,” Gerben said.
“Companies like JPMorgan don’t register trademarks just for fun,” he said. The filing includes “a sworn statement from a corporate executive essentially saying, ‘Yes, we plan to use this mark’.”
JPMorgan must launch IndexGPT within three years of approval to secure the brand, according to the lawyer. Trademarks typically take nearly a year to be approved, thanks to backlogs at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, he said.
Apps are typically drafted vaguely to give businesses the broadest possible protections, Gerben said.
But JPMorgan’s filing clarifies that IndexGPT uses the same flavor of AI popularized by ChatGPT; the bank plans to use AI powered by “generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) models”.
“It’s an artificial intelligence program to pick financial stocks,” Gerben said. “It looks to me like they’re trying to put my financial adviser out of business.”
JPMorgan declined to comment for this article.
Intermediaries fear
Financial advisors have long feared the arrival of technology capable enough to replace their role in the markets. These fears have yet to materialize.
Wealth management firms, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America’s Merrill, offer simple roboadvisor services, but that hasn’t stopped their human advisors from raising billions more in assets.
Earlier this week, JPMorgan executives touted their progress in applying AI to all operations at the company’s annual investor conference.
The bank, which employs 1,500 data scientists and machine learning engineers, is testing “a number of use cases” for GPT technology, said global chief technology officer Lori Beer.
“We couldn’t discuss AI without mentioning GPT and big language models,” Beer said. “We recognized the power and opportunity of these tools and are committed to exploring all the ways they can bring value to the business.”
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