Software-based robotic trading agents made seven per cent more cash than people in an IBM test.
Jeffrey Kephart of IBM says his team’s findings could have a much greater impact than the famous victory of IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer over chess supremo Gary Kasparov. “The impact might be measured in billions of dollars annually,” he says.

He believes that in the future billions of economic robotic agents will replace people in making these sorts of financial decisions on behalf of businesses. “We see agents being down there in the frenzy of the trading pit while humans are elevated to a more managerial role,” he says.