If data tells a story ...

Will it tell the tale of broken promises and an illusion of progress?

[1] State of funding for Black founders

Dominic-Madori Davis wrote in her recent TechCrunch article: "Black founders in the U.S. raised 0.48% of all venture dollars allocated last year. That’s around $661 million out of $136 billion, according to the latest Crunchbase data."

Anyone still remember the "blackout tuesday" and black squares that dominated our social feeds?

That solidarity ... it felt so long ago.

[2] State of unicorns and female founders

The number of unicorns ballooned 14 times in the past decade, from 39 to 532; and they are worth a staggering?$1.5 trillion?in aggregate value (versus $260 billion in 2013), according to a recent article in TechCrunch .

But while there are more founders and more unicorns, some things stay pretty much the same. Just 14% of unicorns now have a female co-founder (versus 5% in 2013), and 5% have a female founding CEO (compared to none in 2013), according to Cowboy Ventures .

"There are more founders named Michael, David and Andrew than there are women CEOs of unicorns. At this rate, we won’t reach equal gender representation until 2063."

Oh that's maddening.

Or will it tell the tale of an evolving world, propelled by the dualities of technology?

[3] Tidal wave of fraud, money laundering and trafficking proceeds

According to this article from American Banker , citing the recent Global Financial Crime Report from Nasdaq , fraud cost almost half a trillion dollars last year, including close to $450 billion from payments, check and credit card fraud and more than $40 billion in scams targeting individuals and companies.

Bad actors go where the money flows. But beyond financial loss, what about the mental impact on the victims, as well as another emerging threat: human trafficking?

[4] Uncertainties around the future of work

According to Oliver Wyman 's latest report: "How Generative AI is Transforming Business and Society",

• While 96% of employees said they believe AI can help them in their current job, 60% are afraid it will eventually automate them out of work.
• Some 55% of employees use generative AI at least once a week at work, but 61% of users do not find it very trustworthy. Of those 61%, 40% would nevertheless use it to help them make big financial decisions, and 30% would share more personal data for a better experience.

And while generative AI could add up to $20 trillion to global GDP by 2030 and save 300 billion work hours a year, according to the report, AI could also displace 85 million jobs globally by 2025 —?based on estimates by the World Economic Forum .

[5] Increased AI adoption by enterprises, but challenges remain

According to the latest IBM AI Adoption Index:

• About 42% of enterprise-scale companies surveyed report having actively deployed AI in their business.
• But one-in-five organizations report they do not have employees with the right skills in place to use new AI or automation tools and 16% cannot find new hires with the skills to address that gap.
• Only 34% are currently training or reskilling employees to work together with new automation and AI tools.

Perhaps more worryingly, well under half report they are taking key steps towards trustworthy AI like reducing bias (27%), tracking data provenance (37%), making sure they can explain the decisions of their AI models (41%), or developing ethical AI policies (44%).

So what will the future hold?

[6] A divisive world with increased inequality —?but a different future is possible

Consider the following from Oxfam 's latest report on inequality:

• Since 2020, the beginning of this decade of division, the world’s five richest men have seen their fortunes more than double, while almost five billion people have seen their wealth fall.
• If each of the five wealthiest men globally were to spend a million US dollars daily, they would take 476 years to exhaust their combined wealth.
• The world’s richest 1% own 43% of all global financial assets. They also emit as much carbon pollution as the poorest two-thirds of humanity.
• In the U.S., the wealth of a typical Black household is just 15.8% of that of a typical white household.

And the mega-rich renew call on global leaders at Davos to ‘tax our extreme wealth’.

The story continues ...

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In this month's FinTech Futures , I continued the responsible AI theme.

AI will change how we work, earn, and live. We must ensure that issues around privacy, fairness, and biases are addressed, and safeguards are put in place so that more people can realise the benefits of the technology. Ultimately, it’s about what the technology can deliver, and not the shiny new toy itself.

If 2023 was the year of AI hype, will 2024 be the year of AI governance and responsibility?

Read the full article here.

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In this week's One Vision Podcast ...

What’s the magic with events, you ask? From fostering serendipity moments and building communities, to cultivating long-term and impactful relationships, there simply is no substitute to meeting people in person.

In this episode of One Vision Podcast, I caught up with Andrew B. Morris, Chief Content Officer for Fintech Islands, who has had the front row seat and witnessed the change in the industry from its nascent beginnings to now. Beyond networking, building relationships, and exchanging ideas, what else can we expect from the ultimate fintech event in the Caribbean? Tune in here to find out.

Or better yet, join us at FiX24!

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Next week, I will be heading to Barbados for Fintech Islands !

Join Ali Paterson , V.J. Paolo Narciso , and myself for a chat on "From NFTs to the Metaverse: A Practical for Financial Professionals to Harness Web3" if you are there.

And it's not too late to get your ticket, especially given the sub-zero temperature we have! Register here and use code SPKFIX24 for 15 percent discount.

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