Why Ray Dalio says artificial intelligence has guided his decisions for decades

Why Ray Dalio says artificial intelligence has guided his decisions for decades

Ray Dalio has spent years telling people to write down their principles and turn good decision making into a repeatable process. Now he is spelling out just how far he took that idea inside Bridgewater Associates, saying that versions of artificial intelligence have been shaping his choices for around 40 years.

Dalio explains that, long before today’s chatbots and flashy AI demos, he and his team were trying to encode his thinking into computer programs. They broke down how he reacted to different market conditions, what data he watched and how he weighed risks. Those rules were then turned into algorithms that could be tested against history and refined over time.

In practice, that meant he was not relying only on gut instinct on any given day. The systems would flag patterns in interest rates, currencies or economic indicators and suggest actions that were consistent with his written principles. Dalio has often said that combining human judgement with machine-based logic helped Bridgewater reduce emotional bias and stay disciplined when markets were turbulent.

He now looks back at those early models and calls them a form of AI, even if the technology was far simpler than what exists today. The core idea was the same. Take what a skilled person does well, express it in clear rules and let computers apply those rules at speed and scale.

That line of thinking has led to his latest project, sometimes described as a kind of digital version of himself. Dalio and his collaborators are training an AI system on his books, memos and recorded conversations so that others can ask it questions about investing, economics or life choices and get answers that mirror his style of reasoning. For him, it is a way to preserve and share decades of experience in a more interactive form.

Dalio is not arguing that AI should replace human decision makers. He says the best results come when people use technology as a partner. Machines can scan huge amounts of information without getting tired or scared. Humans are better at setting goals, judging context and dealing with values.

His long relationship with computer-based decision tools also shows how finance quietly adopted early AI techniques well before the public conversation caught up. At a time when many industries are still figuring out how to use AI responsibly, Dalio’s approach offers one model. Write down what you believe, test it brutally and let the machines help you apply it more consistently.