The AI revolution continues. September 11, 2026

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

A LiSTNR production.

Scott Phillips (0:04)

Chairs, the S&P, the ISX, stocks.

SPEAKER_1 (0:07)

This is Motley Fool Money.

Scott Phillips (0:10)

Welcome to Motley Fool Money, the podcast that is still, not yet, but maybe not forever, brought to you by Artificial Intelligence. Not even real intelligence possibly, because I'm Scott Phillips from the Motley Fool. He is the far more intelligent man who decided one day that he should probably put his mind to the task of whether or not an investing club could be created online for Australian investors. If so, could it become Australia's premier online investment club? And let that marinate for a while. And with no, I wasn't a thing. This is all pure personal genius. Andrew Ram Page came up with strawman.com, which has earned and justifiably so, the title of Australia's premier online investment club. Mr. Page, at least the real one, not the virtual one. How are you?

Andrew Page (0:51)

Yeah, I'm good.

Andrew Page (0:52)

Maybe I could have done with a bit of AI.

Andrew Page (0:54)

Let me tell you, it would have made things a lot easier.

Scott Phillips (0:57)

I don't want to... Well, we're about to go into AI stuff in general. You do though, it's a fascinating thing to think backwards in that context, isn't it?

What would have been different? You can never... Hindsight is always 20-20, but not so much hindsight as in what mistakes did I make, but how would that path have been different? It's a worthwhile kind of use case, right? So say, well, now we have it. What would have changed? Not to feel what is changing or what will change, but you can always apply it to past examples and think, what would that have looked like?

Andrew Page (1:28)

I'm in two minds because there's part of me that goes, oh my gosh, how much faster could have development been? How much money could have I saved? How much better could have things been? But then you've got the second order consequence there is like, yeah, but so could have anyone, right?

In a way, the fact that it was expensive and difficult and hard, means that there was less other people doing it. So it was like, everyone's doing is like, careful what you wish for.

Andrew Page (1:56)

So I don't, yeah, it's sort of, I actually more that I think about it, the more I sort of, yeah, it's kind of a good thing.

Andrew Page (2:03)

It wasn't around back then.

Scott Phillips (2:06)

I mean, you're right. The barriers to competition, but also maybe the value of being there first. Yeah, they're two sides of the same coin, right? Like, could someone stand up and compare it to the Motley Fool easier than what we had to do to build it? Yes. Could they build a straw man equivalent? Yes.

But the benefits of having been first and being there already are defensible in a way they wouldn't be, to your point. If everyone's got to go, so what if I could invent a stock picking service? What if I can invent an online investment club? Those things are, again, and I would say the quality of, hopefully, the Motley Fool is a stock pick, and the quality of straw man is the members, and that's not replicable. So that's the key difference, right? And I will say, without you being too humble, it was you and your approach and the way you talk to and deal with your members that makes not just, I mean, anyone can set up tomorrow, someone can set up strawman2.com and take the members away. Well, they're not going to, right? Because you've got your members, and the community is actually what you bring to it. But you as an individual and an investor, and the community you foster, that's the advantage. And I think that's where, from an AI perspective, it's worth thinking about what is replicable, and what's not. So, you know, could you, could anyone, you know, anyone could tomorrow set up the equivalent Motley Fool infrastructure, like in a weekend, right? And there are, we've got competitors already. It's not like we haven't got any. Would more competitors be more of a problem? I mean, I guess the more there are, the more risk someone strikes it rich and manages to solve it. So, probably objectively, yes.

But any meaningful way based on our track record, our history, the people we've got, the members you've got, the community you've built, those things are where... Think about Moats.

We've talked before about what Moats is, does AI grow or shrink or eliminate entirely? I wrote about it not too long ago for our members and readers in one of my emails. But that's kind of the real question, right? Is what does AI allow? What does it delete? What does it improve? That, they're the questions we've got to start thinking about for all of our investing, not just our own businesses or online businesses, but just in general. Where do those things make a difference? And I suspect in large part, some of it will be genuinely seismic and paradigm shifting to use the horrible jargon. I don't know if it's just going to be accelerant. It's just an accelerant. It is going to be done more quickly. The direction it's heading may well speed up. So that's worth being mindful of. I think that's the biggest challenge for investors, mate.