Patent reveals AI may use data from social media for trading

August 19, 2020
By Nicholas Say

AI could scan social media for crypto trends and compile it into actionable suggestions, Capital One’s patent has proposed

Capital One recently filed a patent for an artificial intelligence (AI) to formulate crypto trading suggestions by scouring the internet for information regarding market trends. This includes government regulations to corporate developments, social media trends and other areas where people could be communicating.

In the patent, the AI was dubbed as a “System and method for analysing Credibility of Cryptocurrency-related information”, the patent emphasis, unlike stock trading, crypto developments happen 24/7 via a wide range of sources and it is impossible for a person to constantly track these sources of information.

The patent comprehensively explained the purpose of the AI:

“An artificial intelligence engine configured to predict a cryptocurrency market trend based on the credibility of the cryptocurrency-related information; and a processor to generate and execute a personalised trading decision based on the predicted cryptocurrency market trend.”

The AI will receive information based on 8 modules:

1.  Cryptocurrencies Market Module
2. Social Media Module
3. Event Module
4. Cryptocurrencies Company Module
5. User Module
6. Regulation Module
7. Fiat Currency Module
8. Traditional Data Module

A bad track record

The AI will compile and process a large amount of data, and, to provide the user with personalised suggestions, the user data must be in the centre to directly cater to them. This calls for an extremely secure and encrypted database in order to keep their investor and especially their money safe.

However, a costly incident that occurred back in July 2019 had seriously questioned Capital One capability to provide this level of security. During that period, Capital One was the target of a cyber attack, later dubbed, “one of the largest data breaches ever” by CNN.

Private data of more than 100 million US Capital One customers and six million users in Canada were breached, exposing their Social Security number, home addresses and credit scores

Currently, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency alongside with the FBI has fined Capital One $80 million in civil penalties and was forced to improve its risk-management program — as well as reassess its cybersecurity and information security.

Many of the larger US banks have struggled to maintain their reputations for ensuring client security and avoiding abusive practices. Convincing people to hand over large amounts of personal information to a data mining AI may be difficult — even if it helps to create profitable trades.