Mathematician James Simmons who got enormous wealth with a hedge fund using AI talks about his past half-life

James SimmonsMr. hedge fund until 2010 "Renaissance TechnologiesWe lead the other, pioneerAIIt is also known that we gained more than 1 trillion yen of assets by using the operation method using. Originally a mathematician "Churn · Simons theory"This research is also one of the best honors in the field of geometry"Veblen PrizeWe received the award. Moreover, the result of this research is not limited to mathematics,Super string theoryIt is also used in other fields such as physics, such as "It has great achievements. YouTubeNumberphileIn a movie published on the channel, Mr. James Simmons talks about his own half-life.

Billionaire Mathematician - Numberphile - YouTube


◆ I got interested in mathematics
Since I was a child, I like mathematics and I often like to do calculations that will double the numbers.


It was about 4 years old that I was particularly conscious of being "like mathematics". When he was in a car, his father told me "gasoline will run out soon". However, I thought that "gasoline can not be empty" at that time. Because gasoline will be halved, half of it will be gone, half will be gone. If this continues forever, it can not happen to be empty.


So-called"Zenon's paradoxAlthough I believed unconsciously, I remember that it was very interesting to the phenomenon that gasoline is actually empty. This made me decide to become a "mathematician" as a trigger.


◆ As a researcher
IMITAfter graduating,University of California, BerkeleyGo to "ChurnI met him.


I and Charn became good friends, after that, we decided to jointly study.


"Characteristic Forms and Geometric Invariants"After 10 years, it was useful in the field of physics and astronomy.


By the way, I do not have this knowledge for physics and astronomy, I do not have any knowledge, but such things seem to happen occasionally in the field of basic science such as mathematics is.


I take a job of decryption
When I grew as a mathematician of 37 or 38 years old,US National Security AgencyI underwrote the work of decryption for 4 years.


I am going to take this job, with my computeralgorithmIt will lead to success afterwards.


◆ Succeed as a hedge fund
At one point my father got a lot of money. So I asked my father "Why do not you try to manage assets?" Was the reason I came up with a hedge fund.


However, in the first two years I did not have an operational model in particular, and it was simple to leave it running. And, fortunately, I gained a big profit.


And at one time, when I was watching price movement, I thought "There are some patterns in the way of movement, can you predict mathematically or statistically?" And I hired scholars in various fields and started to make predictive models jointly.


This model is to actually try out the predicted content, further improvement based on the result obtained, and it corresponds to what is called "machine learning" now.


As a result of many years of research and trials, our model has been adjusted to a state that can accommodate anything happening, and it is becoming more powerful.


Currently
My wife set up a foundation in 1994 and I am working there, too.


The foundation is founded mainly for the purpose of donating money to the field of basic science. In addition, I am doing activities that give remuneration to superior mathematics teachers about $ 15,000 (about 1.7 million yen) for the purpose of improving mathematics education in the United States. I expect that such activities will lead to the progress of scientific research in the future.