The glitzy skyscrapers of Hong Kong’s financial center stand in stark contrast to a dirty grey industrial building in the city’s run-down Kwun Tong district. Yet nine floors up, in an office bereft of any form of signage, a new artificially intelligent investor is taking shape.

This trading robot, developed by a team of academic roboticists, mathematicians, and ex-bankers, is the brainchild of fledgling hedge fund Aidyia, which has been seed-funded by venture capitalist Emanuel Breiter. Scheduled to start trading US equities this year, the team hopes it will deliver returns on the three years and millions of dollars it has taken to build, by turning huge swathes of financial and linguistic data into unique investment strategies.

“It’s seeing patterns that aren’t easy for the human mind to wrap itself around,” said Aidyia’s co-founder and chief scientist, Ben Goertzel.