Legendary investor Howard Marks was skeptical about AI. What it said to him about Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger has left him shaken

Legendary billionaire investor Howard Marks, cofounder and cochairman of Oaktree Capital Management, has spent decades navigating financial manias, sea changes in interest rates, and the shifting pendulums of investor psychology. But his latest encounter with artificial intelligence left him experiencing a profound level of awe—and a deep existential realization about his own storied career.

When Marks prepared a memo on whether AI was a financial bubble late last year, he viewed the technology with a healthy dose of skepticism.