Once super-intelligent AI emerges, it is most likely to be quietly used for profit rather than announced loudly.

What’s going on

Wharton School professor Ethan Mollick said something very straightforward on social media: if any lab truly built a superintelligent AI, they probably wouldn’t issue a public announcement—first they’d use it to make money in the financial markets.

What he thinks

• Use it first; the publishing can come later: Mollick believes the first team to get a superintelligent AI would quietly deploy it in the market.
• The money logic is simple: these systems can quickly and reliably generate profits, easily outcompeting human traders and existing quantitative strategies, while outsiders would find it hard to detect.
• He’s seen this firsthand: in class, he watched students package small advantages into trading strategies; the edge of a superintelligent AI would be infinitely larger.
• Responding to skepticism: some people think this idea is too far-fetched. He said it’s a case of “not enough imagination”—they didn’t consider how money and competition can change people’s behavior.

Why this is worth paying attention to

• Mollick runs Wharton’s Generative AI Labs and wrote the book Co-Intelligence—he’s not someone who says things casually.
• His viewpoint punctures an assumption: everyone thinks that the moment superintelligent AI appears, the whole world will immediately know. But in reality:
  • The core motivation is secrecy and monetization, not open sharing.
  • Even institutions known for transparency (like OpenAI and Anthropic) may tighten their messaging under competitive pressure.
• There’s a game-theory problem here: if your opponent might choose to quietly get rich, would you still choose to make a big public announcement?

Points to note

• Importance: Medium
• Category: Industry trends, technology insights, market impact

Conclusion: You’re still in the early stage right now; if this path holds, the biggest advantage goes to institutional traders and quant funds that can monetize the system quietly.