AI, Expensive Markets, and Why Ownership Matters | Ep. 44

AI is driving markets, headlines, and a lot of investor anxiety. In this episode, Tré and Sierra talk through why the U.S. stock market looks so expensive right now, what investors may be missing about AI valuations, and why this trend could be far bigger than most people think.

Tré explains why he believes the real race is not just to build better chat tools, but to build systems that could transform productivity, labour, and the economy at a massive scale. He also breaks down the practical takeaway: if AI changes the value of human work, owning assets may matter even more than it already does.

This episode is for Canadians who want a clearer way to think about AI, investing, and the future of wealth building.

What listeners will learn

• Why AI is affecting stock market valuations
• Why being invested already gives you some AI exposure
• How Tré thinks about AI risk versus AI opportunity
• Why ownership may matter more in an AI-driven economy
• What AI could mean for jobs, productivity, and wealth gaps

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Transcript

Sierra 0:01

Oh, let's get, sorry, take a little pause'cause I was doing something weird and I didn't, our record.

Tre 0:08

That's definitely going in there. Hello and welcome to the Plain English Finance Podcast, podcast dedicated to helping you make smart financial decisions. I'm your host, Tré. This is my co-host Sierra. If you wanna learn more about me, check out episodes one and two. Okay, so this one was on AI. Whole craze. US is US market, stock market is extremely expensive right now because of AI. And it's a conversation that I'm having a lot with clients. Because it's kind of scary and a lot of people, and first of all, I am not an AI expert by any means, but I do have opinions. I have opinions on a lot of things. So I thought I would, I know really surprising.. I'm

Sierra 0:53

surprised again. Yeah, I know.

Tre 0:55

But I thought. I could actually ask you'cause we haven't actually really talked about it. Yeah. What do you like, do you think it's a good thing? Do you think it's a bad thing? Do you have any thoughts about,

Sierra 1:08

You know how I am. I am always like every side of the situation is what I like to look at. I'm never a 100%, this is good, this is bad, black and white thinker. I'm just not that way. So yeah, I think there's. Benefits to it. Obviously. I was just listening to that podcast. You were watching downstairs and I got a little spooked when they were like saying that AI is gonna kill us all. I was like, oh my gosh. Basically. But yeah, like I guess I'm also like, it is what it is. This is like very bad for me to say, I guess, but I don't know. It's just, you can't stop it. Like I can't stop it. They were talking about it in that episode that it's inevitable or so people keep saying, but we're creating the inevitability because we're saying it's inevitable.

Tre 2:06

Yeah.

Sierra 2:07

So if you are, yeah, it's kind of a mind loop, but it made sense to me the way the guy said it. So yeah, all the billionaires and Elon Musks of the world are doing stuff around AI. So I'm like, who, what am I gonna do? I guess I just have to accept it. I don't know. End of episode. Yeah, that's

Tre 2:29

fair. Okay. I, um, I, so first off, the, the question I get is often about should I be investing in AI? If you're invested at all, pretty much you're gonna have exposure to it. Do I think that it could lead to another market crash? Potentially, but I am also firmly on the side of the fence that it is more dangerous not to be invested in that area than to be invested in that area. Because while I don't think that everybody will win, I think that's impossible that every company that's valued exponentially right now will win. I do think that there is a lot more to the, a lot more to the AI race going on right now than maybe a lot of people think or understand. I think people Please

Sierra 3:21

expand on that.'cause you know, I'm already like, like what? What do you think? Tell me in a, tell me the conspiracy theories. So

Tre 3:27

I don't think it's, maybe it is a conspiracy. Maybe, I don't know. Is this conspiracy theory you tell me? I'll tell you. So. The, I think people are, are thinking that they, the AI companies, the big AI companies are racing to create the best ChatGPT?

Sierra 3:44

Yeah. Is ChatGPT not one of them.

Tre 3:47

Chat. Yeah. Open AI is the one that runs ChatGPT. Okay. I don't think they are, I think they are competing to make actual AI. So right now we have large language models, basically kind of like predictive. And they've gotten very good. Don't get me wrong though, but they are not true intelligence. Mm-hmm. And I think the race is really to create a system that helps them get there as fast as possible, because the implications of true general intelligence cannot be understated.

Sierra 4:26

Yeah. See, when I start thinking about that, like it freaks me out because. True artificial intelligence is life, almost. Like, no, it's not. Yeah. But it kind of is because what

Tre 4:40

then you get answer the question is what is, yeah. I'm not, I am definitely not going down that route. Let's go down that road. No, not going down that route. I love it. But you're right. Where I like from a, I'm gonna think of it from an economic point of view, and I would say with very high confidence that, if that was the case, could you imagine a workforce that is smarter than any human that's ever lived in the last 300 years with modern technology working 24 7 and a billion of them? Mm-hmm. Could you imagine the progress in every area of the world that could be made? Could you also imagine the progress of every area of killing each other that could be made. Yeah. And things like that, right? Like, just think of, I I think it would, it would initiate a technological jump. We already, we've already made massive strides in technological advancement in the last five years. Let alone what could be accomplished if you had all of the information at Man's Fingertips. That in, in that capacity. It's just, you can't, it's just very unfathomable to think about. Yeah. You can't

Sierra 6:05

even wrap your mind around it.

Tre 6:07

And I, so I, I think when, when people are like, you're questioning the, the valuation of the companies and things like that, and do I think it's high? Do I think it's crazy high? Yes. Do I think that it's completely insane. No, and I think that companies are cheap. When you think of what could be. What could be, because we're thinking that, oh, me paying$30 a month for ChatGPT, if that's the whole business model, that's not sustainable or no, it's not. But Amazon, and it sucks for a lot of lots of people. But if Amazon can cut their workforce. By 90% because

Tre (2) 6:49

AI

Tre 6:50

is replacing all these individuals and suddenly that's not$30 a month in savings. What a company's willing to pay for that. Well, they're willing to pay a lot more than what they're paying me because that person is never gonna, that thing is never gonna take holidays, never gonna, like, there's tons of that, right? Like, so when you think of it as. AI could replace that. Suddenly the valuations don't seem that crazy. And when you think of money in the way that I think of money, like it's kind of a, it's money doesn't matter to the biggest economy on the planet if you have the reserve currency, which at the US so they just print more basically. It's like, who cares what the number is, the cost of not being the one in control of that. For them is the cost of not being in control is scarier than any amount of money. Any possible amount of money that you could put out there, they will spend it and it's almost like the government will spend it as well and reinforce it and back it because they feel like they cannot afford to be behind. Because if an, if a competitor gets it first. Because of the massive jump and the massive leap, and the massive, the just the advancement that could happen in, in a very short time. I'm telling you like if somebody achieved that, you could be talking about weeks or months before. Yeah. Right. Like you, when when you, when you think about it, like imagine the best military commander to ever have lived in charge of an army. Yeah. Like you and humans historically have done very poor things with, with technological advancements. So I'm just, I don't think that, I don't think there's a number. It's all for good? I don't know what humans is. Definitely not all for good. It's definitely not good. Be used for good. And I think the idea though, that somebody can'cause I had the same similar conversation when it came to where money is put in order to fund. Like renewable energy and things like that. And I had the same argument with not argument, have conversations, lively conversations with clients and stuff about that.

Sierra 9:11

Lively, passionate, yelling, lively, passionate, not yell... I'm just joking.

Tre 9:15

Um, but he was saying that he, he wanted to see like the big oil companies do more for like global warming and things like that. And my view is very simple. I think Elon Musk, if you hate him or like him, I think his companies have done more for the environmental good for like natural like renewable resources and stuff like that. Sustainability.

Sierra 9:41

Sustainability,

Tre 9:42

than any other company trying to stop the oil companies from drilling in the earth. Because we humans will gravitate towards the best option, no matter the cost. So the best way to make progress is for technology to advance in such a way that the best choice for the planet or for whatever it is for global warming, is also the best choice for people's pockets because that's just the way humans are. And I just, I think the same principle applies to AI, I don't think, because that person, like on the podcast we're watching it was, he was talking about the eventuality of it. Like it's just inevitable. I do think it is. I don't, I, I, I do think that somebody will continue to research it and get there eventually. Because I do not believe for a second that everybody on the planet is gonna get together and say, you know what guys, let's put a pause on this. And everybody trust each other.

Sierra 10:46

Oh,

Tre 10:48

to put down their weapons, as it were. We haven't even been able to

Sierra 10:50

do that, to do

Tre 10:51

that, let alone something as monumental. As the potential of AGI and when you're talking to people in the industry, a person mentioned it was like some of these people think it's two to 10 years away from achieving that, right?

Sierra 11:08

Okay, so question, do you feel like the world as we know it is about to change completely? Like flip it on its head I'm just imagining that's what I'm hearing when I listen to that stuff about AI and

Tre 11:25

Yeah, I think, I think The change

Sierra 11:27

that could happen in such a short amount of time... I don't know.

Tre 11:30

Yeah, I think it's very difficult for, I think no matter how hard you try to understate or overstate what the change could be, I think you are understanding it. Because if you think back to where people thought we would be 10 years ago. I'm not talking not, let's not go ages away. 10 years ago, what we can do now with computers you wouldn't have thought we'd be able to do. Mm-hmm. Right. When people were talking about like the potential for AI 10 years ago. It was some weird warning that, oh, the person's crazy. We're never gonna get there. It

Sierra 12:10

was like that janky robot on Yeah. Social media. And then that was like, yeah,

Tre 12:14

and then ChatGPT came out and you're looking at it like, this is so dumb. You're making it write your emails. It was like, this thing is stupid, it makes so many mistakes. It's like it's gonna be ages before. And then the most recent versions of these type of things are, in the top 1% of humans for intelligence and reasoning ability let alone the other advancements or in other areas that we've experienced. Just imagine if you, you had the brightest minds. Right now you have the best minds working on one project or that project. It could be the, it could be the best mind in the world, but you can only pick one topic to work on, right? You're either a biochemist or you're a rocket engineer, or you're like, whatever it is, you don't, there's not this one mind for everything, if that makes sense. But the potential of like advance, like general intelligence is that you do have that in every area working around the clock, and you can multiply them. Exponentially. Yeah, I think people are, I don't think it's, I think it's very difficult to understate how big of a change that would be for humanity as a whole.

Sierra 13:24

I'm just wondering if it's, this is maybe dark, but I'm like, does it even matter what you're doing right now? I guess it. How do I put this? Here's what

Tre 13:40

I would say I Do you know what

Sierra 13:41

I'm trying to get at? It's like, yeah.

Tre 13:43

I would say is money. Like how could you ever even protect yourself from that?

Sierra 13:46

Yeah.

Tre 13:46

I would say I would rather be an owner than anything else. Like, I am buying stocks. I, I want to own part of the economy because if for some reason I can't work. I want a way that isn't hoping for government handouts to feed my family. Yeah. Right. And it's very just like, not, it's very pessimistic to think like that, but it's like, you might, I don't know. I, it is maybe it's way too pessimistic Keep going... especially for a professional podcast, but it's like, sorry, I, I, I, I, we might get we could get to a point where the opportunity to build wealth like we've had doesn't exist anymore.

Sierra 14:34

That's what I'm also thinking,

Tre 14:36

Like right now I have the opportunity to go out and work harder than the guy next to me, to to earn more, to turn that then into assets, to buy them, buy into the stock market, to build by building a business. Like all of these things that have the opportunity to do right now. Because I can go out and work harder than the next person. What if that ability to go out and work harder than the next person is taken away? Mm-hmm. What you do is like, what? What if there is no, what if there's nothing that I can provide to society that is more valuable than the next person. Yeah. Because there's

Sierra 15:12

a robot

Tre 15:13

doing it. A robot doing it. That is a genuine... yeah, it's a genuine concern that I, I absolutely would have, and to say, you know, when I say like, not making a decision is still a decision, what if there is no future opportunity to fix the past decisions? Right. Whatever. Maybe we are the last generation to be able to, to be able to go from nothing to, to being a millionaire. Like that type of principle. But then, I don't know.

Sierra 15:42

I hear what you're saying. But I can't help but think the same question does it matter? Because when you take away, like work and all that stuff, it's like, what are we gonna be doing if,

Tre 15:58

well, okay, well there's the upside, right? There's the, there. There's a giant upside to the mundane tasks being not up to humans to do. Because that means that there's, there's efficiency. Like that's what there's people talking about like global universal income and stuff like that. There is a genuine upside to it, right? Imagine you, what's the universal income like where everybody gets given what they need because nobody needs to work. So you kind of like basic income, like you get given what you need for food and travel and you just get given a you should get given it. Right. You don't have to go work for it. And to a degree we already have that type of safety net, but imagine that as everybody gets that and so that would still, then you still get opportunity to build something.'cause depends on what you make. My mind is,

Sierra 16:49

can you see me? It's like, yeah, I'm going, I'm, I'm, I'm going very deep right now. Yeah. Hey, maybe it's gonna, I'm just thinking like, what if. So sorry. The smartest person in the room, the greatest minds, they're now compounding, if that makes sense.

Tre 17:13

Yeah.

Sierra 17:14

Like At a rate

Tre 17:15

that we've never seen before. So then it's like,

Sierra 17:17

because it's artificial intelligence, so they're learning, but once they get to a certain point, like money, now you're learning.

Tre 17:28

Yeah.

Sierra 17:29

So quickly. So I'm just thinking, how are, how is artificial intelligence not going to become a world power? And then Great

Tre 17:37

question.

Sierra 17:38

And then they're gonna be dictating what we do because it's like, what, what other choice do we have? What else are we, you, you

Tre 17:43

hope That's why there's, there's different thoughts about it, right? Like you hope that humans remain in control of it, right? That's the hope. Who knows, right? Who, who truly knows absolutely nobody.

Sierra 17:55

It's just, it gets to the point where I. I don't think that would happen if it was true intelligence. Be like, what is, again, the profound questions. I love to ask, what is artificial intelligence? what's the difference between real intelligence and artificial intelligence?

Tre 18:14

Just ones a computer,

Sierra 18:15

I guess. It's like, but

Tre 18:17

it's like one was like, yeah, I, I, I just think there is like very realistically. A major, major shift happening, like happening right now that we don't truly see the gravity of. Yeah. That, like when you said the compounding thing, we already struggled to understand compounding, but you're absolutely right. Whereas what they, what you're, what they're trying to get to is a machine that can teach itself.

Sierra 18:49

Yeah, and it's like, and

Tre 18:51

once you get to that point, you can multiply it because it's a computer in a way that you can't multiply human intelligence. That if I achieve that with one AI running, I can do that with a hundred of them. If I can do it with a hundred of them, I can do it with a billion of them. I just need enough electricity and enough data centers and enough power to do it. Right. It's, it's exponential. Exponential magnitudes, and I can have that work on how to efficiently bring me other AI. Like, it is, it is very exponential and it just in a way that humans have never, ever seen before. So from, from a point of view of what do I do about that? What do I do about that now? You make the same decisions that you should have, you should be doing anyway. But you make them a little bit more urgently. Honestly, what I would is what I would say all, all the jobs that you like, if you are working in, in, in those type of jobs that could be impacted by it. You make sure that you're building, you're building stuff, right? Like it's like assets. Because assets are not the same as human labor. If you own a building, that building still. You might be the one using AI to efficiently run the building. But it's the building earning money. You're not physically having to trade your intelligence and your labor for money, for some resource. So the people that own the resources are the ones that

Sierra 20:27

might be okay.

Tre 20:29

Will be more okay than others. I'm not saying that would be great. I'm just saying that even if it was to go wrong. Bad, they would still be more okay than the individuals that didn't have assets. And that has been the theme throughout history. The person that owned the farm, because they could grow food, was better off than the individual that was working on the farm because they, if push come to shove, the person that owns a farm could get rid of the person that's working on them. And the person that's working on them suddenly doesn't have a way to. Eat.

Sierra 21:03

Yeah.

Tre 21:03

So

Sierra 21:04

Whereas the guy who owns the farm is growing his own crop.

Tre 21:06

He's growing his own vegetable. He's not the one working for the food. Right. He might have to be the one growing it, going and doing the work, but it's the ground that's growing, the food that's doing all the work. He owns the resource and I think that is going to be the case It's already the case, I just think it's gonna be more urgently the case going forward. So the people that have invested that own stuff, owners, not lenders, owners, will be the ones that have any shot at getting through a massive change like that with as much, with as much hope to get on the other side in a decent way. I just read an article about a school that's the teachers are AI. I should have found it. But it's really interesting where they have replaced the teachers and the students are paying a premium, it's like a private school or whatever. If that's already happening at 3, 4 years into this thing, could you imagine what 10 years, 15 years is gonna look like? And that's just such a small scale. And I look and obviously I work with a lot of teachers and I'm thinking to myself, okay. Some of the teachers that I have had the privilege of working with are, I wouldn't, I would rather an AI teach my child. Like, it's just like we might, the reality of it I must say I've met tons of great teachers. Gr great, great, great, great, great, great people, but just like every bag of grapes has a few sour. You so ones in it. It's the same way with every profession.

Sierra 22:38

Yeah, for sure. And

Tre 22:39

so the question comes, would I rather those teachers teach my children or an AI? I'm gonna pick an AI.

Sierra 22:51

Yeah. It's just like,

Tre 22:53

and I think lot of people would make their

Sierra 22:54

I can't be so pessimistic.'cause I'm like, it just feels like humanity is about to be

Tre 23:00

Turned on its head.

Sierra 23:01

What even is it, you know, if, if artificial intelligence are teaching your children, what are they teaching? Because they can teach, I think they can still do art that you don't even know.

Tre 23:15

To a degree, yeah, you're right. But that happens with teachers, right? That That's the thing with teachers what are they teaching my child? Right? That's true. That's true.'cause

Sierra 23:23

there's all that like, are

Tre 23:23

they abusing my child? Are they, you know, degrading my child? Are they like, all of those things comes into mind. But you don't have that same fear with an AI because you would be able to see everything, right? Like it is just a, again, you pick your, you.

Sierra 23:42

Pick your poison. You

Tre 23:43

pick your poison. It is just that. I think there'll be a lot of professions that are heavily disrupted and a lot of people will find themselves with without work because I guarantee you, if the school board could replace, so average teacher probably makes around 90 to a hundred thousand dollars and I could replace and I could replace it for 30. With taxpayer money hay country will reduce your taxes. People vote with their wallets, are they gonna say no? You know what? Keep my taxes up. You know, our taxes just, well, our city taxes just went up by 9% or something like that. We'll actually drop it by 15%, but it means that we're going to add some AI teachers guarantee it'll pass. No problems that vote. Yeah.'cause people vote with their wallets. So while I think it's great to be like, we should all just band together and say no to AI and stop the progression, it's just not human humans. It's not what we. Done historically. Yeah. Anyway, felt like I ranted on there, but No,

Sierra 24:44

that's okay. I know it's a, we are gonna keep talking about this after and, but Seika is barking and I don't know what she's barking at,

Tre 24:51

so I might, sounds good. Okay. Well we will, uh, let you guys go and we'll keep talking about this. Yeah.

Sierra 24:58

Whatever your thoughts are. If you're hearing this, please share.'cause I love a deep conversation. So,

Tre 25:06

yeah, I just think, I think it's. I think it's huge. I think it's bigger than most people even remotely realize. Yeah, because everything, like my, this is my final thought. Final thought. Any speed of progress that we have previously achieved as humans Times by a thousand. Mm-hmm.

Sierra 25:25

It's about to be a squashed into the,

Tre 25:29

I think we'll make more progress once if AGI, if AGI comes into place. I think we'll make more progress in six months than in human history and whether that will be enough time to implement the progress. Completely different story, but I think that from a ability point of view, we'll make more progress in that time than human history.

Sierra 25:52

Crazy.

Tre 25:54

I, I truly think that, and I mean, we've already, like humans have already done that, right? If we think of the progress made in. Two thousands. Even in 2010 to 2020, I would say we already kind of achieved that in 10 to 20 years. We achieved that already once. Mm-hmm. I think it would be so much faster. So much quicker. But

Sierra 26:17

yeah.

Tre 26:17

Anyway, see you guys in the next one.

Sierra 26:20

Bye bye.

Tre 26:23

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Plain English Finance Podcast. Tré Bynoe CFP Financial Planner. CIM is a financial planner with TCU Wealth Management and Aviso Wealth. You should always consult with your financial, legal, and tax advisors before making changes. This podcast is provided as a general source of information and should not be considered personal investment advice or solicitation to buy or sell any securities. The views expressed are those of the individual and are not necessarily those of Aviso Financial Inc. Mutual funds and other securities offered through Aviso Wealth, a division of Aviso Financial, Inc. Mutual funds and other securities offered through Aviso wealth, a division of Aviso Wealth Inc.