Automatons predict market

PwC claims its AI machine gives ‘incredibly accurate’ forecasts

Could robots do a better job of forecasting the direction of the economy?

PwC revealed yesterday that it was on the cusp of launching a roboeconomist which could make the company the “most accurate” forecaster in the market.

The professional services firm has developed artificial intelligence (AI) with a 92% strike rate when it comes to predicting the result of UK gross domestic product (GDP).

PwC discovered the AI’s “incredible accuracy” after testing to see if the machine could pinpoint historic GDP results without knowing the outcome.

While Jonathan Gillham, PwC’s director of economics, joked that AI had already started to supersede his job, the firm said there were no plans to replace staff with automatons and the programme would work alongside human economists. Mr Gillham said: “We have been using an AI technique to forecast the UK economy and we will be launching it in July.

“Each quarter, the Office for National Statistics publishes its estimate for GDP and we have been able to use an AI technology base to get that right 92% of the time for the last five years.

“Whether that will hold up in July when we launch it, who knows. But if it’s correct, then it would make us the most accurate forecaster on the market.”

PwC said the programme still needed “input and judgement” from humans to identify problems, select the best models and interpret results.

Inverness-based economist Tony Mackay was sceptical. “I doubt if the robot will be able to predict what Donald Trump will tweet tomorrow or when indyref2 will be held.”