"Do you have any thoughts on Chat GP and the like, If its...

"Do you have any thoughts on Chat GP and the like, If its beneficial for the company or is it going to disrupt it?"

Given the accelerating rate of technological change, it is hard for anyone to be able to provide a definitive answer to that question. With all technology-driven businesses, someone else could suddenly develop a better mouse trap, so product obsolescence risk is always elevated.

But with the caveat of confirmation bias inherent with being a shareholder, I see the first-order effect of AI content generation, such as that by ChatGP, as dramatically increasing the amount of linguistic data, some of which will naturally be required to be independently verified by credible operators.

So, initially at least, I see generative AI dramatically increasing the size of the pie of content that requires translating.

And sure, AI will do a lot of the translating of the explosion in content that AI itself creates, but it will be generic and, more importantly, unverified.

So while free online translation may suit the purposes of the lay user, the commoditised nature of it means it will not be adequate for enterprise customers whose needs are a lot more sophisticated and require customisation and security overlays.

Which is where the likes of STG come in, meaning that there will be underlying demand for the products/services of STG under just about all reasonably conceivable scenarios.

In summary, as with all technology businesses, it would be naive to believe that the existential risks for STG are always zero.

But that doesn't preclude me from being happy to own shares in such businesses, because it would mean I forego the significant upside potential that they are known to offer. So I do invest in them and I think that prudent portfolio construction goes a long way to neutralising the risks.

In other words, I'd never put 10% (or even 5%, for that matter) of my family's capital into just a single business like STG; instead that ~10%-15% portfolio exposure would take the form of 1% to 2% positions in each of 8 or 10 similar style businesses.

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