HSBC launches AI-powered equity index family

I am probably missing something but why index trackers and not funds that have different types of objectives, e.g. capital growth, or focus on a sector.  Is this a subtle way of training an algorithm in a real live environment? 

If these products simulate the behaviour of analysts and traders, where does the "index" part come in? Surely they are active and not passively tracking an index. The naming seems confusing.

"smart" beta? 

I thought index / ETF was passive investing where you created a portfolio onetime to mirror a preexisting index and let its value go up or down based entirely on market movements - in short "set it up and forget about it" style of investing. Not sure what's the role of AI in that. OTOH, it does require AI to use alternative data in order to predict price movements of individual stocks and trade on that basis. There are dozens of solutions like that in the market but I haven't seen the term index associated with any of them.

or "cheaper" beta? 

I'm not privvy to the way Watson is being used in the solution above, but nowhere does the article claim that it's being used to "...simulate the behaviour of analysts and traders". That's an outdated view of AI and ML, touted for the most part by media wanting to dramatise it's use as a threat to jobs. In reality (or at least the way I offer it), it enhances the quality, quantitive nature and scale of data from which Researchers take their baseline. They can then 'do their magic' (often faster and more reliably), which gives traders and brokers better products to offer to their Clients. If you're seeing it as a replacement for F/O staff, you're missing out (respectfully - and I don't mean that to sound patronising). Take another look at some of the stuff online and maybe it'll change your perception. Or DM me on here or LinkedIn, if I can help.

Addendum, to clarify my comments above ref "...simulates a team of thousands of analysts and traders...". What I meant to suggest is as the article points out: "...to learn from millions of pieces of information”.