{"684128":{"#nid":"684128","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Researchers Put Financial Influencers to the Test Using AI","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech researchers have designed the first benchmark that tests how well existing AI tools can interpret advice from YouTube financial influencers, also known as finfluencers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELead author \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/michaelgalarnyk\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMichael Galarnyk\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, Ph.D. Machine Learning \u201928, joined lead authors \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/veerkejriwal\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EVeer Kejriwal\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, B.S. Computer Science \u201925, and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/agam-shah\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAgam Shah\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, Ph.D. Machine Learning \u201926, along with co-authors \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/yash-bhardwaj-tech\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYash Bhardwaj\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, \u00c9cole Polytechnique, M.S. Trustworthy and Responsible AI \u201827; \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/nicholaswatney\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENicholas Meyer\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, B.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering \u201922 and Quantitative and Computational Finance \u201924; \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/anandmkrishnan\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAnand Krishnan\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, Stanford University, B.S. Computer Science \u201827; and, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.scheller.gatech.edu\/directory\/faculty\/chava\/index.html\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESudheer Chava\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, Alton M. Costley Chair and professor of Finance at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAptly named VideoConviction, the multimodal benchmark included hundreds of video clips. Experts labelled each clip with the influencer\u2019s recommendation (buy, sell, or hold) and how strongly the influencer seemed to believe in their advice, based on tone, delivery, and facial expressions. The goal? To see how accurately AI can pick up on both the message and the conviction behind it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur work shows that financial reasoning remains a challenge for even the most advanced models,\u201d said Michael Galarnyk, lead author. \u201cMultimodal inputs bring some improvement, but performance often breaks down on harder tasks that require distinguishing between casual discussion and meaningful analysis. Understanding where these models fail is a first step toward building systems that can reason more reliably in high stakes domains.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.scheller.gatech.edu\/news\/2025\/georgia-tech-research-ai-financial-influencers.html\u0022\u003ERead More\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech researchers created a new benchmark showing that even advanced AI still struggles to distinguish real investment recommendations from casual commentary, raising concerns about AI\u2019s reliability and financial influencer credibility.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech researchers created a new benchmark showing that even advanced AI still struggles to distinguish real investment recommendations from casual commentary."}],"uid":"36730","created_gmt":"2025-08-25 16:51:36","changed_gmt":"2025-08-25 16:56:18","author":"klowe36","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-08-25T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2025-08-25T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"677785":{"id":"677785","type":"image","title":"AI Finfluencer Research","body":"\u003Cp\u003EMichael Galarnyk, Ph.D. Machine Learning \u201928; Veer Kejriwal, B.S. Computer Science \u201925; Agam Shah, Ph.D. Machine Learning \u201926; and Sudheer Chava, Alton M. Costley Chair and professor of Finance at Georgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1756140472","gmt_created":"2025-08-25 16:47:52","changed":"1756140576","gmt_changed":"2025-08-25 16:49:36","alt":"Michael Galarnyk pictured next to Veer Kejriwal, Agam Shah, and Sudheer Chava","file":{"fid":"261723","name":"finfluencer-research.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/08\/25\/finfluencer-research.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/08\/25\/finfluencer-research.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":274645,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/08\/25\/finfluencer-research.jpg?itok=osJTrwxj"}}},"media_ids":["677785"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.scheller.gatech.edu\/news\/2025\/georgia-tech-research-ai-financial-influencers.html","title":"Learn More"}],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"139","name":"Business"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EKristin Lowe (She\/Her)\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EContent Strategist\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology | Scheller College of Business\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:klowe36@gatech.edu\u0022 title=\u0022mailto:klowe36@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ekristin.lowe@scheller.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["kristin.lowe@scheller.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}