Words and Curation: Chanel Retief and Lillian Roberts Art Director: Lucy Nkosi Photography: Katlego Mokubyane Photography Assistant: Sbusiso Sigidi Studio: NewKatz Studio, Johannesburg CNBC Africa Videographer: Thabo Mathebula Video Editor: Chanel Retief Styling: Bontlefeela Mogoye and Wanda Baloyi Outfits supplied by: Kworks Design; Imprint South Africa; House of Suitability; LSJ Designs Hair &amp; Makeup: Makole Made



Khula! was built on friendship. 



“We [Matthew Piper, Chief Product Officer and co-founder] became friends pretty quickly at university,” Karidas Tshintsholo, wearing a powder blue suit and a bright smile, says to FORBES AFRICA. 



“And then the friendship grew into business. I think already by the second semester of our first year [in university], we had an education type of business running.” 



It was after university that Piper returned to Johannesburg with ideas that he relayed to Tshintsholo.



“Initially, agriculture is not a very sexy industry,” Tshintsholo laughs. “From the outside, it looks pretty dirty and all of that&#8230;Almost everybody on the continent is dependent on agriculture for survival. But it just didn&#8217;t make sense that we were getting more food in than what we were taking out. We should be ideally positioned to be supplying the world 10 times over.” 



And with that in mind, Tshintsholo, Piper and Jackson Dyora (Chief Technology Officer and co-founder cofounder) set out to build Khula! 



In a nutshell, the company provides small-scale and commercial size farmers with software and a marketplace to grow their business. The whole idea was to be an ecosystem of support to farmers across Africa. The platform has three key components: an input marketplace, which allows farmers to purchase inputs and get technical services; there is a trader platform where farmers can sell; and to close the loop, there is a funded dashboard, where the platform links farmers with financing assistance.



“I think it really speaks to the nature of agriculture,” Tshintsholo says, “that quite often, when you&#8217;re trying to solve one problem, you get undone by another problem.” This was what drove him to entrepreneurship to begin with–wanting to solve problems.



“I think Mike Tyson said ‘everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face’. And I think entrepreneurship is like that…We went into this thinking, we&#8217;ve got this, and we have a solid plan, we are going to connect farmers with buyers’. Easy. Until…”



“How many times have you been punched in the face?” we ask. “I get punched in the face every day,” Tshintsholo laughs. “We had to get a lot of punches. But I think the pilot helped us because the farmers were okay with giving us those punches, because in the end, we&#8217;re working together to build a product that we can then begin to scale.”

Untitled design (11)

MEET COVER STAR Karidas Tshintsholo: Building Tech To Support Africa’s Farmers

ChatGPT, a cutting-edge language model developed by OpenAI, has revolutionized how we interact with technology and access information through artificial intelligence (AI). As an AI-driven conversation agent, ChatGPT has the potential to significantly impact various sectors in Africa, offering opportunities for growth and development. However, ChatGPT also presents unique challenges that we must address to harness its benefits fully. 



This article explores the implications of ChatGPT for Africa, focusing on its potential applications in education, healthcare, agriculture, and language preservation, as well as the challenges associated with its adoption.



Before discussing the applications of ChatGPT in Africa, it is crucial first to discuss what ChatGPT can and cannot do. Firstly, ChatGPT, like many AI technologies, depends on existing data. Therefore, it cannot incorporate what does not already exist. For example, it will not recommend medications not yet discovered. Consequently, it would not have invented Einstein&#8217;s theory of relativity. However, it can gather and summarize existing information, which may help find new medicines. Despite these,



ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for enhancing education in Africa by providing personalized learning experiences, facilitating access to knowledge, and supporting educators. By offering tailored content based on individual learning needs, ChatGPT can help bridge the gap in educational resources and improve overall learning outcomes. Additionally, it can assist teachers by providing instant feedback on student performance, identifying areas for improvement, and suggesting targeted interventions.



ChatGPT can be crucial in providing medical information and support in Africa, where access to healthcare professionals is often limited. It can serve as a health assistant, offering advice on common health issues, symptom analysis, and self-care tips. This could help reduce the burden on healthcare systems and facilitate timely intervention, particularly in remote or underserved areas. For this to happen, we need to retrain existing and new medical professionals to develop competency in the seamless use of technology in medical care. This, therefore, calls for revising the medical curriculum to incorporate more technology.



Another application of ChatGPT is in the area of agriculture. ChatGPT can contribute to developing sustainable agriculture in Africa by providing farmers real-time information on weather patterns, pest control, and crop management. This could help farmers optimize their operations, improve yields, and enhance food security for the continent. This requires farmers to form learning communes where issues of agricultural performance are discussed together to augment existing recommendations of ChatGPT, which is based on existing information.



ChatGPT can be used for language preservation. Africa is home to a rich linguistic diversity, with over 2,000 languages spoken across the continent. ChatGPT can be trained to understand and interact in various African languages, promoting language preservation and cultural heritage. By making technology more accessible and inclusive, ChatGPT can help bridge the digital divide and empower local communities. However, for this to happen, we need to infuse the ethos of AI transfer learning methodology to ensure that all languages are included, irrespective of size.



One of the primary challenges for ChatGPT adoption in Africa is the lack of robust digital infrastructure. Limited access to the internet, unreliable connectivity, and high data costs can hinder the widespread use of ChatGPT and its associated benefits. To fully harness the potential of ChatGPT, investments in digital infrastructure and affordable internet access are essential. However, for this to happen, we need to bridge the digital divide and ensure that telecommunications data and affordable devices are accessible.



The adoption of ChatGPT in Africa also depends on the population&#8217;s digital literacy level. Therefore, promoting digital literacy through education and training programs is crucial to ensure people can effectively utilize ChatGPT and other digital technologies.



As with any AI technology, ChatGPT raises concerns about data privacy and security. Therefore, ensuring that ChatGPT complies with data protection regulations and safeguards user privacy is essential to build trust and encourage widespread adoption.



AI models, including ChatGPT, can inadvertently perpetuate biases and stereotypes in the data they are trained on. Addressing these biases and ensuring that ChatGPT&#8217;s interactions are culturally sensitive and contextually appropriate is crucial for its successful implementation in Africa.



ChatGPT has the potential to significantly impact various sectors in Africa, offering opportunities for growth and development. By harnessing its potential in education, healthcare, agriculture, and language preservation, Africa can benefit from the advancements in AI technology. However, addressing challenges related to digital infrastructure, digital literacy, data privacy, and ethical considerations is crucial for successfully adopting ChatGPT on the continent through collaborative efforts from governments, the private sector, and African civil society.



– The writer is a Rector of the United Nations University (UNU) Rector based in Tokyo, Japan. UNU has campuses in Ghana, Japan, China, Malaysia, Finland, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Belgium, Venezuela, Canada and the US.

In this photo illustration, the ChatGPT (OpenAI) logo is

ChatGPT In Africa: Opportunities And Challenges

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta has been testing its challenger to Twitter—internally dubbed “Project 92” and previously “Barcelona”—for months with celebrities and influencers, and gave employees a sneak preview this week.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Meta&nbsp;<a href="https://www.platformer.news/p/meta-is-building-a-decentralized" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;tech journalist Casey Newton in March the company “believe(d) there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.”



In May, Bloomberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-19/instagram-readies-twitter-competitor-for-summer-release?srnd=premium&amp;leadSource=uverify%20wall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;Meta had been quietly testing it with celebrities and influencers for months and potentially could be ready to launch it as early as June.



Last week, Meta employees got a preview of the app, The Verge&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/8/23754304/instagram-meta-twitter-competitor-threads-activitypub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>, which will stand alone but based on Instagram, and will likely allow users to transfer information and followers from Instagram.



<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/8/23754304/instagram-meta-twitter-competitor-threads-activitypub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Screenshots</a>&nbsp;of the app acquired by The Verge show a mobile app with an appearance extremely similar to Twitter, featuring verified users, like and reshare buttons and a messaging option.



Meta chief product officer Chris Cox reportedly told employees the goal of the new app is to have a platform prioritizing “safety, ease of use, reliability” and to ensure that creators have a “stable place to build and grow their audiences.”



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There is still no set launch date or official name for the app—nicknamed both Project 92 and “Barcelona” internally—though could be called Threads, “based on internal documents” reviewed by The Verge.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution,” Cox said to employees, in a clear dig at Twitter, and new owner Elon Musk, when showing the app, The Verge reported, calling it “our response to Twitter.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cheif-critic">CHEIF CRITIC</h2>



Twitter CEO Elon Musk responded to a tweet about Meta’s challenger crudely Friday,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1667443908060520449" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeting</a>&nbsp;“zuck my tongue” in response to a link reporting that Meta had been trying to get the Dalia Lama—who recently made&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65229327" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">headlines</a>&nbsp;for saying “suck my tongue” to a child—as a user. Meta reportedly has DJ Slime signed on to use the app, and are also in talks with Oprah, The Verge reported.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Many frustrated users have posted publicly about finding an alternative to Twitter since billionaire Elon Musk took over in October 2022 and began quickly making changes to the platform, ranging from adding an algorithm-driven “For You” page, to eliminating moderation teams charged with eliminating offensive content, to charging people to be verified and get access to features like an edit button. Mastodon attempted to fill the gap shortly after Musk bought Twitter, offering a less centralized&nbsp;<a href="https://joinmastodon.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">platform</a>&nbsp;but promising “no algorithms or ads to waste your time.” But,&nbsp;Wired&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-mastodon-bump-is-now-a-slump/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that Mastodon’s number of active users fell to 1.4 million at the end of January—dropping by more than one million—since people flocked to it in November 2022.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



Project 92 isn’t the only recent Twitter challenger. Twitter’s former CEO Jack Dorsey launched&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/05/01/what-is-bluesky-heres-what-to-know-about-ex-twitter-ceos-new-invite-only-social-network--as-these-celebrities-sign-up/?sh=7c0dbce76342">Bluesky</a>, a decentralized app that was developed in parallel with Twitter and has an interface almost indistinguishable from Twitter, along with a similar algorithm. Bluesky is currently invitation-only after launching its beta version for iOS in February and for Android in April. Bluesky plans to allow users to create their own content moderation guidelines or subscribe to guidelines created by others, including the ability to opt-in or opt-out of viewing violent or hateful content.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/8/23754304/instagram-meta-twitter-competitor-threads-activitypub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Instagram’s upcoming Twitter competitor shown in leaked screenshots</a>&nbsp;(The Verge)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/19/instagram-is-preparing-a-twitter-like-app-to-be-launched-this-summer-report-says/?sh=4afdb443100c">Instagram Is Preparing A Twitter-Like App To Be Launched This Summer, Report Says</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)

Facebook Covers Sign At Menlo Park Headquarters

Meta’s ‘Response To Twitter’ May Launch Soon. Here’s What To Know About It.

Boeing is partnering with Equatic, a Los Angeles-based startup that removes carbon from the ocean, in a first-of-its-kind deal to buy a massive amount of carbon credits and green hydrogen that’s likely worth at least $50 million.



Under the five-year arrangement, Equatic will remove 62,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide for the aerospace giant and supply it with 2,100 metric tons of “green” hydrogen generated as a byproduct of its technology. Equatic declined to provide a value for the agreement, though it’s more than double the size of a 25,000-ton CO2 elimination contract competitor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jpmorganchase.com/news-stories/jpmorgan-chase-seeks-to-scale-investment-in-emerging-carbon-removal-technologies" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Climeworks just announced with JP Morgan Chase</a>. Climeworks values that deal—which doesn’t include hydrogen fuel—at more than $20 million. (The financial company is also contracting with startup Charm Industrial to put captured carbon underground as “bio-oil” made with agricultural scraps.)



The deal arose from plans for a technology partnership between the companies related to large-scale CO2 removal facilities Equatic is developing, said Lorenzo Corsini, the startup’s principal advisor, who declined to discuss specific details.



“This catalyzes the development of the technology and it&#8217;s a leap of faith by Boeing,” Corsini told&nbsp;Forbes. Boeing is “serious about removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and knows that they need to invest upfront to do this.”



Equatic recently spun out of UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management and is part of a new wave of companies with a mission to slow the buildup of climate-warming CO2 by pulling it out of the atmosphere. Unlike the approach of rivals such as Climeworks, Charm and CarbFix, which absorb CO2 from the ambient air and store it, Equatic’s focus is using electrolysis to remove CO2 from seawater and convert the carbon into seashell-like material that it believes won’t harm the aquatic environment. Hydrogen, which is increasingly seen as a promising clean fuel for industrial applications and transportation, is also a byproduct.



“Reaching aviation’s sustainability goals will require a multi-faceted approach and Boeing sees immense value in Equatic’s technology,” Sheila Remes, Boeing&#8217;s vice president of environmental sustainability, said in an emailed statement. “We are excited to partner with Equatic on both green hydrogen feedstock and carbon dioxide removal.”



Equatic focuses on oceans as they’re Earth’s largest CO2 reservoir. Founder Gaurav Sant, director of the UCLA initiative, believes its approach amplifies natural processes and is the cheapest, most energy-efficient way to achieve gigaton-level CO2 removal and produce hydrogen from nonpolluting sources. The amount of CO2 removed is also measurable “down to the gram,” the company said.



(For more on Equatic see&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2023/04/12/equatic-startup-co2-green-hydrogen/?sh=6a2da83a426a">An L.A. Startup Aims To Turn The Oceans Into A CO2 Sponge And ‘Green’ Hydrogen Machine</a>)



That’s important because of growing skepticism around carbon offsets, such as those sold by Verra, the biggest certifier of carbon credits. David Antonioli, the non-profit’s CEO, stepped down this month after acknowledging that a significant portion of credits it’s approved is not based on reality, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/23/ceo-of-worlds-biggest-carbon-credit-provider-says-he-is-resigning" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report by&nbsp;The Guardian</a>.



Equatic began operating pilots in Los Angeles and Singapore in April to demonstrate the technology. A larger “sub-commercial” facility is set to open as soon as late next year in Singapore, integrated within an existing desalination plant. It will be able to remove 3,500 metric tons of CO2 annually. Equatic then wants to have its first commercial plant running in about three years with the capacity to remove 100,000 metric tons of CO2 and generate 3,500 tons of hydrogen annually. That’s about three times the size of Climeworks’ Mammoth plant under construction in Iceland, which will be able to capture and store 36,000 tons of CO2 annually when fully operational.



The company is in the process of raising $100 million for research and plant construction costs. It’s already taken in $30 million from backers including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation, Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, National Science Foundation, Singapore’s Temasek Foundation, PUB: Singapore’s National Water Agency and the Energy Department.



Corsini estimates Boeing’s purchase agreement is the fifth-largest CO2 elimination deal that’s been announced. Equatic had previously announced that financial services company Stripe is buying CO2 offset credits from its small pilot facilities. Boeing will get credits from the Singapore plant that is to open by early 2025 and Equatic’s first commercial facility, the location of which hasn’t been announced.



“Because we’re still engineering and building those plants, we haven&#8217;t started really reaching out more systematically to clients to fill the pipeline,” Corsini said. In addition to Boeing, “we also have a number of other partners. Expect some more announcements soon on that,” he said, declining to elaborate.

6437f7f632fff1391b8db551_0x0

Boeing Bets On Startup Equatic With Massive CO2 Removal, Hydrogen Deal

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Apple announced that its new 15-inch MacBook Air—the world’s thinnest 15-inch laptop, according to Apple—will be available starting next week, marking a middle-price point offering for the company that previously had a significant price difference between its smaller MacBooks and larger models.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The new model will weigh in at 3.3 pounds and come in four colors.



Bergeron said the laptop will have Apple’s M2 chip, making it 12 times faster than Intel-based MacBook Air; it is quoted at an 18-hour battery life.



The new model will start at $1,299 and be available next week, while the 13-inch MacBook Air powered by the same chip will start at $1,099; the 13-inch MacBook Air with an M1 chip—Apple’s older version—will drop below $1,000, now priced at $999.



Customers can order the new model starting Monday.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Apple didn’t previously offer a 15-inch version of its MacBook Air—which comes in 13-inch options—or its MacBook Pro, its larger laptop that comes in a 14- or 16-inch option. The new model will provide a choice to users who don’t want the extra computing power of the MacBook’s 14- and 16-inch models, but do want the option of a screen bigger than 13 inches. The last time Apple offered a 15-inch laptop of any kind was 2019, but Apple&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/13/20961717/apple-macbook-pro-16-inch-model-screen-discontinued-display-laptop" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">discontinued</a>&nbsp;its 15-inch MacBook Pro that year in exchange for the 16-inch option. Apple’s laptop prices have historically been high, too, with the 16-inch MacBook Pro starting at $2,499. Moving forward, the lower price and bigger screen size is meant “to deliver even more value and choice to everyone,” according to the Apple release.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



The big announcement expected from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is the company’s long-awaited mixed-reality headset that is rumored to have both virtual reality and augmented reality compatibility. The device is rumored to look like ski goggles, The Verge&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/23728368/wwdc-2023-date-time-live-stream-watch-how-to-rumors" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>, and is supposed to have external sensors to help users navigate reality.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuation">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, who kicked off the keynote address Monday at the Worldwide Developers Conference, is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/tim-cook/?sh=612f5e173ea4">estimated</a>&nbsp;to be worth $1.9 billion by&nbsp;Forbes.



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By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and you acknowledge our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/5/23739220/apple-macbook-air-15-features-specs-price-release-date-wwdc-2023" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple’s new 15-inch MacBook Air is the ‘world’s thinnest’</a>&nbsp;(The Verge)



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/live-blog/2023-06-05/apple-worldwide-developers-conference" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple Headset, iOS 17, New Mac: Live WWDC 2023 Analysis With Mark Gurman</a> (Bloomberg)

Apple Store Opens In Knightsbridge

Apple Announces Plans For Its Largest MacBook Air Yet At Developer Conference

TikTok has stored the most sensitive financial data of its biggest stars — including those in its “Creator Fund” — on servers in China. Earlier this year, CEO Shou Chew told Congress “American data has always been stored in Virginia and Singapore.”



Over the past several years,&nbsp;thousands of TikTok creators and businesses around the world have given the company sensitive financial information—including their social security numbers and tax IDs—so that they can be paid by the platform.



But unbeknownst to many of them, TikTok has stored that personal financial information on servers in China that are accessible by employees there,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;has learned.



TikTok uses various internal tools and databases from its Beijing-based parent ByteDance to manage payments to creators who earn money through the app, including many of its biggest stars in the United States and Europe. The same tools are used to pay outside vendors and small businesses working with TikTok. But a trove of records obtained by&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;from multiple sources across different parts of the company reveals that highly sensitive financial and personal information about those prized users and third parties has been stored in China. The discovery also raises questions about whether employees who are not authorized to access that data have been able to. It draws on internal communications, audio recordings, videos, screenshots, documents marked “Privileged and Confidential,” and several people familiar with the matter.



In testimony before Congress earlier this year, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew claimed U.S. user data has been stored on physical servers outside China. “American data has always been stored in Virginia and Singapore in the past, and access of this is on an as-required basis by our engineers globally,” he said under oath at a House hearing in March.



TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said in a statement that “we remain confident in the accuracy of Shou&#8217;s testimony.” ByteDance did not respond to a detailed request for comment. At publication time, neither company had answered basic questions about whether sensitive tax information of U.S. citizens is stored and accessible in China.



Over the last year, TikTok has been touting its plans to cordon off Americans’ data from China in a $1.5 billion undertaking called&nbsp;<a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/tiktok-project-texas-bytedance-user-data" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Project Texas</a>. That initiative has been central to negotiations with the Biden administration on a deal that would allow the wildly popular app to continue operating in the U.S., despite longstanding national security concerns about its Chinese ownership and the potential for the platform to be used&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2022/12/22/tiktok-tracks-forbes-journalists-bytedance/?sh=5a6afb397da5">to surveil</a>&nbsp;or influence the 150 million Americans using it. But since those talks hit a snag late last year, with both FBI Director Christopher Wray and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaking out about national security issues with the app, the Biden administration (through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.) has demanded that TikTok split from its Chinese parent company or face a possible ban.



“There’s ongoing litigation over TikTok that is not yet resolved,” Yellen, whose department leads CFIUS, said at a hearing in March. And many in Congress have cast doubt on Project Texas altogether: “I don’t believe that it is technically possible to accomplish what TikTok says it will accomplish through Project Texas,” California Republican Jay Obernolte told the TikTok CEO at the March hearing. “There are too many backdoors.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“Even if TikTok was not a subsidiary of a Chinese company, this would be pretty alarming IT security malpractice.”Former White House and CIA national security lawyer Bryan Cunningham
</blockquote>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Identity theft using stolen social security numbers is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/taxpayer-guide-to-identity-theft" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">not uncommon</a>&nbsp;in the U.S., and the Chinese government&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/10/us/politics/equifax-hack-china.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has been accused</a>&nbsp;of stealing personal financial information from Americans before. One expert told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;this is precisely why TikTok’s mishandling of such information is troubling.



“Even if TikTok was not a subsidiary of a Chinese company, this would be pretty alarming IT security malpractice,” Bryan Cunningham, a former national security lawyer for the White House and CIA, told&nbsp;Forbes. He described tax records as some of the most sensitive data there is.



&#8220;It could be just bad IT practice, it could be they felt like they had a legitimate business need,” Cunningham said of TikTok. “But whatever the nuance of that turns out to be… if you store information in the PRC, you better assume that the intelligence services can have it if they want it. They may not target you, but boy, on the face of it, it&#8217;s highly questionable.”



TikTok and ByteDance did not respond to questions about how many people at the companies can access creators’ financial information, where those employees are located and whether there has been unauthorized access to this data. They also did not respond to queries about how long TikTok users and vendors’ payment data had been stored in China and whether it still is today.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Raising regulatory alarms on both sides of the Atlantic</h2>



TikTok or ByteDance&nbsp;employees in China having access to American users and businesses’ sensitive financial records is potentially problematic for geopolitical reasons, particularly against the backdrop of intense regulatory scrutiny in the U.S.



Though there is no national privacy law in the U.S. to protect against the mishandling or misuse of personally identifiable information,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/8152/text" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">one top contender</a>&nbsp;introduced last Congress would require companies to clearly disclose in their privacy policies whether data they collect “is transferred to, processed in, stored in, or otherwise accessible to the People’s Republic of China” and other adversaries. And though a past Federal Trade Commission&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2019/02/video-social-networking-app-musically-agrees-settle-ftc-allegations-it-violated-childrens-privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">settlement with TikTok</a>&nbsp;(then Musical.ly) dealt with a markedly separate set of issues—children’s privacy violations—the agency could take that order into consideration when evaluating the company’s conduct today.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Jessica Rich, former director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a case like this, the agency would likely consider whether the company had made false or deceptive statements about how it handles users’ information—in a privacy policy, for example—or if the handling of that information had created a real risk of harm. She would not comment specifically on TikTok and ByteDance.



TikTok’s policies suggest that it takes appropriate steps to protect its users’ data. Creators who join TikTok’s Creator Fund&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/legal/page/global/tiktok-creator-fund-terms/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">agree to</a>&nbsp;“all” TikTok policies, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/legal/page/us/privacy-policy/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">privacy terms</a>&nbsp;stating that “certain entities within our corporate group… are given limited remote access to information we collect” if it’s necessary for the platform’s operations. They also emphasize that “we use reasonable measures to help protect information from… unauthorized access.” (It does say TikTok may transmit user data to servers outside the U.S. for storage or processing, and that no data storage or transmission is guaranteed to be secure.)



Rich, the former federal regulator, said that if any company claims to be locking down access to information but then making it available to employees around the world who do not need it, the FTC could see that as a deceptive statement and grounds for a potential data security complaint. She also said that the agency generally views financial information and social security numbers as more sensitive than email addresses or phone numbers, and that it may scrutinize those data-sharing cases more aggressively.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“I would like everything to stay in the U.S.—like, I wouldn&#8217;t see why it would ever need to be stored on a China database.”TikToker and Creator Fund member Zack Fairhurst
</blockquote>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



TikTok’s storage of European creators’ bank information in China could also be problematic under Europe’s privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation.



Even as TikTok launched&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-ie/project-clover-ireland" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Project Clover</a>—a Project Texas counterpart across the Atlantic—to safeguard the data of its European users, the Irish Data Protection Commission (TikTok’s lead regulator in the European Union) is already conducting&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/news-media/latest-news/dpc-launches-two-inquiries-tiktok-concerning-compliance-gdpr-requirements-relating-processing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">two investigations</a>&nbsp;into whether the company has complied with GDPR. One of those probes is looking specifically at whether TikTok has unlawfully transferred European users’ personal data from the EU to China, and whether it was adequately transparent with users about how it was handling their information. Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, vice president for global privacy at the Future of Privacy Forum, said ByteDance tools storing European creators’ data on servers in China could be problematic for that reason.



&#8220;This is the sort of thing that would confirm there are transfers [of personal data] to China happening, so I&#8217;m sure they would be interested in knowing this,” she said of Ireland’s privacy watchdog. (Just last week, the body issued&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/05/22/meta-fined-record-13-billion-for-violating-eu-privacy-rules/?sh=2eff164772c9">a record $1.3 billion fine</a>&nbsp;to Facebook parent Meta, one of TikTok’s biggest rivals, over its own data transfer issues.) GDPR also requires companies to restrict access to sensitive user data on a need-to-know basis, Zanfir-Fortuna added, raising questions about how broad access to these payment tools has been and whether it was necessary.



The Commission would not comment on its ongoing inquiry into TikTok except to say it expects a public update after this summer. TikTok’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/legal/page/eea/privacy-policy/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">policies for Europe</a>&nbsp;say “certain entities in our Corporate Group, located outside your country of residence (see&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/legal/transferee-countries" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>), are given limited remote access to this information” and that this access is “secure and only granted where necessary under strict security controls.” The link included (“here”) lands on a 404 error page.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Creators reacts</h2>



TikToker&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@maddzak?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Zack Fairhurst</a>,&nbsp;a member of its Creator Fund who participated in the company’s blitz on Capitol Hill this spring, told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;he had no idea his tax information and social security number might be stored in China. (TikTok brought some creators to Washington in March to raise awareness around&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2023/03/22/how-a-tiktok-ban-would-affect-creators-businesses-economy/?sh=3cbf8eb25608">the benefits of the app</a>.)



“It wouldn&#8217;t really make sense for it to be over there,” Fairhurst told&nbsp;Forbes. “I would like everything to stay in the U.S—like, I wouldn&#8217;t see why it would ever need to be stored on a China database. … I am actually surprised by that.”



Other creators recalled uploading social security and financial information into TikTok but told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;they were unfazed by the possibility that it’s stored in China because putting themselves out there online is par for the course for those who want to build audiences and careers through social media.



&#8220;There are so many more pressing issues in the U.S.,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@kathrynanja?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kathryn Cross</a>, a 24-year-old creator in the TikTok program, told&nbsp;Forbes. “My mom grew up in China, so I just know that the Chinese government is so stringent about maintaining a proper public figure, essentially, that they would never allow something like a Cambridge Analytica scandal to compromise their global position.”



“The benefit TikTok has brought to people&#8217;s businesses and lives, and the innovation behind the For You Page, to me seems so much more valuable than any minute chance that China&#8217;s storing our data… more so it seems like a foreign policy type of conflict,” she added.



Internet star and TikTok Creator Fund member&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@yourrichbff?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vivian Tu</a>—a former Wall Street trader who doles out financial advice under the handle “YourRichBFF,” said joining any app’s monetization program is “a calculated risk.”



&#8220;If you&#8217;re okay with being on TikTok,” she told&nbsp;Forbes,&nbsp;“you probably don&#8217;t care that much about your banking information being everywhere it&#8217;s stored.”



Emily Baker-White contributed reporting.

Trump Approves TikTok Takeover By Oracle And Walmart

TikTok Creators’ Financial Info, Social Security Numbers Have Been Stored In China

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Although AI has become popular in recent months for its ability to perform advanced tasks and make life easier, there’s also increasing concern it can be used negatively, creating racial biases in the fields of healthcare, law enforcement and big tech.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Joy Buolamwini, a researcher at MIT,&nbsp;<a href="https://time.com/5520558/artificial-intelligence-racial-gender-bias/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">discovered</a>&nbsp;some facial analysis software was unable to detect her face until she covered her dark skin with a white mask, and chalked this up to AI systems’ lacking data as they’re largely trained on white faces.



A major U.S. technology company claimed its facial recognition accuracy rate was 97%, but through her research, Buolamwini&nbsp;<a href="https://news.mit.edu/2018/study-finds-gender-skin-type-bias-artificial-intelligence-systems-0212" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">found</a>&nbsp;the company’s training set was more than 77% male and 83% white.



A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hilarispublisher.com/open-access/face-verification-subject-to-varying-age-ethnicity-and-genderdemographics-using-deep-learning-2155-6180-1000323.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;published in the&nbsp;Journal of Biometrics and Biostatistics&nbsp;found Black women between the ages of 18 and 30 are the demographic with the poorest facial recognition accuracy.



A 2022&nbsp;<a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3531146.3533138" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;conducted by institutions including Johns Hopkins University and the Georgia Institute of Technology programmed AI-trained robots to scan blocks with people’s faces from different races.



After the robots scanned the faces, they were tasked with designating which blocks were criminals—they consistently labeled the blocks with Black faces as criminals.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news-peg">NEWS PEG</h2>



In 2015, Google Photos came under fire after its AI-based search tool pulled images of Black people when the term “gorilla” was searched. After this controversy was revealed, Google stopped its software from categorizing any image as a “gorilla” and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33347866" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">promised</a>&nbsp;to fix the problem. However, after saving pictures of gorillas and different primates, a recent&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/technology/ai-photo-labels-google-apple.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;found that the issue hadn’t been fixed, and Google Photos’ software was still programmed to prohibit generating any images categorized as gorillas. It wouldn’t generate images for searches of any primates.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“AI is just software that learns by example,” Reid Blackman, who has advised companies and governments on digital ethics and wrote the book&nbsp;Ethical Machines,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/18/politics/ai-chatgpt-racist-what-matters/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;CNN. “So, if you give it examples that contain or reflect certain kinds of biases or discriminatory attitudes . . . you’re going to get outputs that resemble that.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



According to a Pew Research&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/20/most-americans-say-racial-bias-is-a-problem-in-the-workplace-can-ai-help/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">poll</a>, 53% of Americans who believe racial and ethnic bias in the workplace is a problem think it would get better if employers used AI more in the hiring process, asserting that AI might potentially be beneficial in fighting against racial bias.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dermatology">DERMATOLOGY</h2>



According to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq6147" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published in&nbsp;Science Advances,&nbsp;diagnostic and decision support tools used in dermatology are AI models trained on a dataset of skin tones and skin conditions. However, the dataset the AI is trained on is limited, as it lacks images of uncommon diseases, as well as diverse skin tones. A&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33969523/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published in the&nbsp;Archives of Dermatological Research&nbsp;found that Covid disproportionately affects non-white ethnic groups. However, the dataset used to train dermatologists included 92% of pictures of Covid skin lesions on fairer skin tones, only 8% showed lesions on more olive skin tones, and none of them included dark skin tones. Because skin conditions show up differently in different skin colors, the need for diverse training is essential. For example, melanoma is rare in African Americans, according to a&nbsp;Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(03)02091-7/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>, but because training and education on dark skin tones in the field of dermatology is poor, it’s more likely to go undiagnosed than in white Americans, leading to a drastically lower survival rate. A 2019&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31157429/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published in the&nbsp;British Journal of Dermatology&nbsp;found 47% of dermatologists felt they weren’t adequately trained to diagnose skin disease in people of color.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-tech-companies">BIG TECH COMPANIES</h2>



In 2022, Apple was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/12/27/apple-watch-blood-oxygen-oximeter-dark-skin-lawsuit/10955942002/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sued</a>&nbsp;over allegations that the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensor was racially biased against those with a darker skin tone. The Blood Oxygen app can measure oxygen levels in the blood by using sensors on the wrist, providing users with insights into their health, the app&nbsp;<a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211027" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claims</a>. The lawsuit points to the Food and Drug Administration’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2029240?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&amp;rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&amp;rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed#article_citing_articles" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">review</a>&nbsp;of pulse oximeter technology created after the Covid pandemic increased its use in hospitals. The review found Black patients were almost three times more likely to have dangerously low blood oxygen levels go undetected by pulse oximetry compared to that of white patients. In an October 2022&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/healthcare/docs/site/Blood_Oxygen_app_on_Apple_Watch_October_2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">white paper</a>, Apple acknowledged the potential difficulties that come with pulse oximetry taking measurements on darker skin, but claimed its device “automatically adjusts . . . to ensure adequate signal resolution across the range of human skin tones.” In 2020, Twitter released its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57192898" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">photo cropping</a>&nbsp;feature, which crops and focuses on photos to allow for a better viewing experience, especially when scrolling through Twitter’s timeline. However, it was soon&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/global-tech-race-twitter-idUKL5N2GI5R2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed</a>&nbsp;that the tool favored white faces, focusing on their faces in the photo preview and only revealing the Black faces when the users clicked to view the full photo. This led Twitter to&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.twitter.com/engineering/en_us/topics/insights/2021/sharing-learnings-about-our-image-cropping-algorithm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a>&nbsp;the algorithm, and it found in 2021 that it indeed had racial bias that favored white faces, leading to the company ditching the feature.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-law-enforcement">LAW ENFORCEMENT</h2>



Facial recognition software is used in a number of different entities, including on smartphones, for police face recognition, airport passenger screening and employment decisions. However, the AI behind facial recognition has proven to be used to promote a racial bias.&nbsp;<a href="https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2020/racial-discrimination-in-face-recognition-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According</a>&nbsp;to Harvard’s Science in the News, police facial recognition software is trained on mugshot data, in which Black people are overrepresented. Racist policing strategies contribute to this, like the New York Police Department maintaining a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2019/7/23/the-nypds-gang-database-a-new-age-of-stop-and-frisk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">database</a>&nbsp;of “gang-affiliated” people made up of 99% Black and Latino people, though there are no requirements to prove these people are gang affiliated, thus incentivizing false reports.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0740624X22000892?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Research</a>&nbsp;published in&nbsp;Science Direct&nbsp;found law enforcement agencies that use AI-based facial recognition technology disproportionately arrest Black people due to their overwhelming presence in the training dataset.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ajl.org/facial-recognition-technology" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According</a>&nbsp;to the Algorithmic Justice League, “Face surveillance threatens rights including privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of association and due process.” Its controversial use in law enforcement has led to several cities across the country&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/movement-ban-government-use-face-recognition" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">banning</a>&nbsp;police from using facial recognition.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-related-targeting-ethnic-groups">RELATED: TARGETING ETHNIC GROUPS</h2>



Israeli authorities are relying on facial recognition to track Palestinians and restrict their passage through key checkpoints, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/6701/2023/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;by Amnesty International. The software, known as Red Wolf, is used at checkpoints, scanning Palestinians’ faces and using a color-coded system of either green, yellow or red to determine whether to allow them to pass, stop them for questioning or deny entry. This is just the latest example of Israel restricting Palestinians’ freedom of movement as the software heavily focuses on Palestinians, Amnesty argues, and the report calls it an “automated apartheid.” China has also used AI and facial recognition to identify minorities. The country came under fire for using the technology to racially profile the Uyghurs, a vastly Muslim minority group, the&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/technology/china-surveillance-artificial-intelligence-racial-profiling.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>. The facial recognition technology is embedded into China’s widespread network of surveillance cameras and exclusively looks for Uyghurs based on how they look, keeping a record of where they’re coming from—and going to. The U.S. even&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/06/china-sensetime-facial-recognition-uyghur-surveillance-us-sanctions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sanctioned</a>&nbsp;SenseTime, China’s largest facial recognition firm, for its alleged role in the surveillance of the Uyghurs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/technology/china-surveillance-artificial-intelligence-racial-profiling.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google’s Photo App Still Can’t Find Gorillas. And Neither Can Apple’s</a>&nbsp;(New York Times)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/04/14/youre-already-using-ai-heres-where-its-at-in-everyday-life-from-facial-recognition-to-navigation-apps/?sh=37c1cfb127ac">You’re Already Using AI: Here’s Where It’s At In Everyday Life, From Facial Recognition To Navigation Apps</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/04/10/heres-how-to-use-ai-like-chatgpt-and-bard-for-everyday-tasks-like-creating-a-budget-finding-airfare-or-planning-meals/?sh=43627396190d">Here’s How To Use AI—Like ChatGPT And Bard—For Everyday Tasks Like Creating A Budget, Finding Airfare Or Planning Meals</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/04/25/republicans-share-an-apocalyptic-ai-powered-attack-ad-against-biden-heres-how-to-spot-a-deepfake/?sh=4ac38d717753">Republicans Share An Apocalyptic AI-Powered Attack Ad Against Biden: Here’s How To Spot A Deepfake</a> (Forbes)

Students Working On Computer Assignment During Seminar Group

Racism And AI: Here’s How It’s Been Criticized For Amplifying Bias

Where does the continent fit into the chatbot conversation, and why it needs its own startups that focus on AI.



The ability to be able to have a conversation with someone else is a fundamental part of what it means to be a human being but today, it’s becoming more and more confusing to figure out whether you’re talking to a bot… or not.



Technology has advanced to the point where AI-powered conversational chatbots, like ChatGPT or Meta’s BlenderBot 3, are deceptively realistic. (More so when they go off the rails and say things like ‘I want to be alive’, which is exactly what Bing’s AI bot expressed earlier this year.) While chatbots like these are trained to avoid expressing personal or biased views, and are known to make factual mistakes and mix up information, they’re becoming smarter, more streamlined and sometimes, a little strange…



“Conversational AI is one of the first applications of NLP in artificial intelligence and this kind of technology has existed since Eliza in the sixties,” explains Professor Mpho Raborife, the deputy director at the Institute for Intelligent Systems at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.



Natural Language Processing, or NLP, is a way for computers to understand human language. NLP uses AI tools like machine learning and neural networks to process and interpret large amounts of data.



“With the rise of big data, ChatGPT was inevitable. It’s trained on a very large dataset and the technologies behind it make it a lot more advanced than other conversational AI applications.”



One of the reasons for this, explains Raborife, is that ChatGPT uses reinforcement learning alongside sophisticated algorithms that manipulate its dataset. “It’s so sophisticated that people don’t realize that it really possesses no intelligence whatsoever,” she adds, “it really doesn’t understand the meaning behind anything, it just know how the words are supposed to work but not what they mean.”



OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a research experiment gone wild that has shown the incredible potential of conversational AI yet Africa is still being left behind. Consider smartphone voice assistants like Siri or Alexa – both examples of conversational AI used regularly; they work with English but struggle to understand local accents. They don’t support African languages.



“We know that the Global North is not going to include our languages. Therefore, we need to find a way to make sure that we create an environment that the startups that come from Africa which do incorporate our languages have the same kind of impact,” Raborife adds. Duolingo, for example, is a popular language learning mobile app that uses an AI system called Birdbrain to personalize its content. Duolingo has 43 different languages (including made-up dialects such as Klingon, High Valyrian and Esperanto) but only isiZulu and Swahili are available when it comes to African language learning courses.



“When we talk about AI, our languages are not supported or even represented by these technologies,” says Raborife. “But conversational AI has the potential to bridge the language divide as it can be used in a variety of ways because it surpasses literacy levels. If people cannot read or write, they can use their voice to access services and this is something that is important to Africa.



This is why we need our own startups that focus on AI. Recently launched, Lelapa AI is an African AI research and product house looking to make a real difference within the continent with a special interest in agriculture, education, energy, healthcare, microfinance and language.



“There are so many problems on the continent that AI-type technologies can help with so there’s a responsibility for us to use our skills to help create better lives for everyday Africans,” says Pelonomi Moiloa, Lelapa AI’s co-founder and CEO. 



“What we intend to do is use technology in a very smart, resource-efficient way because there are challenges on the continent like rolling blackouts, water shortages and network issues…” Lelapa AI have already debuted an app called VulaVula which offers NLP-as-a-service for under-represented languages. Moiloa describes VulaVula as an underlying technology that supports other technologies. A banking chatbot, for example, could use VulaVula’s AI language capabilities to help customers interact in their own languages.



“The idea is that if an organization has a place for us to plug our models into and we can collaborate agreements around how that work can be done, then – ideally – if we have the resources and capacity we will help businesses do what they need.”



For Moiloa, creating African data sets to work from may be challenging but it’s also something she sees as a competitive advantage for Lelapa AI. “We’re having to think around clever ways of dealing with Africa’s data scarcity problem. We have to create models that are able to cope with less amounts of data, but models that can get really good at curating and gathering data,” she says.



And the fact that ChatGPT doesn’t necessarily draw its information from African data sets (it was apparently trained using real human conversations) means startups like Lelapa AI have the opportunity to develop responsible methods of dealing with problems that are relevant to the continent.



“I don’t think we should be trying to develop our own ChatGPT but maybe we can develop other textual tools that can help solve the problems that ChatGPT is meant to – but at the moment, it seems to be creating more problems,” she ends.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) concept. Electronic circuit. Communication network.

Talking A-‘bot Africa: The Potential For Conversational AI

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Instagram has been secretly testing a text-based app similar to Twitter for months with celebrities and influencers and is preparing to launch it as early as June, Bloomberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-19/instagram-readies-twitter-competitor-for-summer-release?srnd=premium&amp;leadSource=uverify%20wall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;Friday, as some people look to leave Twitter due to changes made under CEO Elon Musk.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The app will be separate from Instagram—which is owned by Meta—though users will be able to connect their accounts and follow all of the people they follow on Instagram on the new app with just one click, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/liahaberman/status/1659553280891179010/photo/1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">screenshot</a>&nbsp;posted by Lia Haberman, professor of social and influencer marketing at UCLA and author of the newsletter&nbsp;<a href="https://liahaberman.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ICYMI</a>.



The app may eventually be compatible with others attempting to appeal to former Twitter users—including Mastodon—according to Haberman’s screenshot, which says users on Mastodon will “soon” be able to follow and interact with posts on Meta’s new platform without needing to create a new account.



Haberman said users will be able to post up to 500 characters of text, along with images and pictures.



Meta has been testing the new app secretly with celebrities and influencers for months, people familiar with the project told Bloomberg.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



In March, Money Control first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.platformer.news/p/meta-is-building-a-decentralized" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that Meta was exploring the creation of a social network for text updates to compete with Twitter. Shortly after that, Meta officials&nbsp;<a href="https://www.platformer.news/p/meta-is-building-a-decentralized" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;Platformer they “believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.” Many users have been looking for an alternative to Twitter since billionaire Elon Musk took over in October 2022 and began quickly making changes to the platform ranging from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/12/heres-how-twitters-appearance-has-changed-under-elon-musk/?sh=75eb23385f68">adding</a>&nbsp;an algorithm-driven “For You” page to charging people to be verified and get access to features like an edit button. Mastodon launched shortly after Musk bought Twitter, offering a similar&nbsp;<a href="https://joinmastodon.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">platform</a>&nbsp;but with “no algorithms or ads to waste your time.” But it doesn’t seem that platform is filling the need.&nbsp;Wired&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-mastodon-bump-is-now-a-slump/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that Mastodon’s number of active users had fallen to 1.4 million at the end of January—dropping by more than one million—since people flocked to it in November 2022.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



A recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/05/17/how-us-adults-on-twitter-use-the-site-in-the-elon-musk-era/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;by Pew Research Center found that while people are still logging on Twitter, the most active Twitter users are posting about 25% less after Musk’s acquisition. The study also found that six in 10 Americans who used Twitter in the past year&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/05/17/majority-of-us-twitter-users-say-theyve-taken-a-break-from-the-platform-in-the-past-year/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;taking a break from the platform, and 25% of respondents said they aren’t likely to be on the platform one year from now.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-19/instagram-readies-twitter-competitor-for-summer-release?srnd=premium&amp;leadSource=uverify%20wall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Instagram Readies Twitter Competitor for Summer Release</a>&nbsp;(Bloomberg)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/12/heres-how-twitters-appearance-has-changed-under-elon-musk/?sh=75eb23385f68">Here&#8217;s How Twitter&#8217;s Appearance Has Changed Under Elon Musk</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/"></a>By Molly Bohannon, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration the Instagram logo seen displayed

Instagram Is Preparing A Twitter-Like App To Be Launched This Summer, Report Says

After two months of testing its new natural language-based AI tool&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2023/03/16/microsoft-announces-new-ai-powered-tools-for-its-office-apps/?sh=5edc5d075bce">Copilot</a>&nbsp;with 20 large companies, Microsoft announced an expanded preview of the feature on Tuesday for 600 customers, widening access to a tool embedded in its Office application that was initially met with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/17/23644501/microsoft-copilot-ai-office-documents-microsoft-365-report" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reviews as a game-changer</a>.



The “early access” program will be invitation only and a paid preview that requires an additional fee, said Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for modern work, who would not share when the tech giant planned to roll out the program more widely to its full customer base, even though “the demand to me seems almost bottomless right now,” Spataro said in an interview with&nbsp;Forbes. “I don’t talk to a customer right now that isn’t interested in it.” The company said it is not disclosing pricing externally.



Spataro said early customers reported Copilot’s meeting tools—the ability to summarize what happened in a missed meeting and act as a real-time assistant while a meeting is going on—have been most frequently cited by early customers as particularly useful. In a blog post, he also identified early feedback Microsoft has gotten on the tool, such as the need for more conversational, multi-step interactions with Copilot.



Asked about concerns that generative AI tools might&nbsp;<a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/chatgpt-poised-to-expose-corporate-secrets-cyber-firm-warns" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expose</a>&nbsp;corporate secrets or customer information—with some employers even instituting&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-02/samsung-bans-chatgpt-and-other-generative-ai-use-by-staff-after-leak" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bans</a>&nbsp;of ChatGPT’s use following leaks of sensitive data—Spataro said Copilot does not use corporate users’ data to “train” the larger model.



“Everything that happens related to large language models and the use of AI happens within what we call a ‘tenant boundary’” in the Microsoft Cloud, Spataro says. “No data ever leaves your ‘tenant’ and no data is ever used to train the large language models. Even those statements give us a really good foundation with most customers.”



The company, which purchased an exclusive license to the underlying technology behind ChatGPT&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/09/22/microsoft-teams-up-with-openai-to-exclusively-license-gpt-3-language-model/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in 2020</a>, also announced a new “semantic index” capability that will require Microsoft 365 users to have its E3 and E5 versions to access Copilot’s capabilities. Rather than finding files by title names or keywords, Microsoft says the feature maps data and uses a conceptual understanding of the data to retrieve it.



Microsoft also announced new features on Copilot such as integrating DALL-E, OpenAI’s image generator, into PowerPoint and adding AI-powered coaching tips in Outlook to improve email writing, an enhancement that could help workers struggling with the “digital debt” phenomenon Microsoft identified in its&nbsp;annual&nbsp;<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Work Trend Index</a>, the results of which it also released Tuesday.



The report, which surveyed 31,000 people in 31 countries and analyzed data from Microsoft 365, found that 68% of respondents said they don’t have enough uninterrupted time during the workday to focus. It also found that nearly 60% of users’ time spent in Microsoft 365 is using communication tools like Outlook or Teams, with just over 40% being used for actually producing work with tools like Excel or Word. The heaviest email users, the analysis found, spend nearly nine hours a week on email, while the most prolific Teams users spend 7.5 hours a week in meetings.



Respondents cited ineffective meetings—not too many meetings—as their biggest obstacle to productivity in the survey. Microsoft, of course, hopes its customers will add on AI features that will help change that. “What many people are feeling now is it takes work to do work,” Spataro says.



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenamcgregor/"></a>By Jena McGregor, Forbes Staff

Logo Photo Illustration

Microsoft Expands Copilot AI Tool To 600 Customers In Paid Preview As ‘Digital Debt’ Weighs On Workers

This writer stepped into the metaverse for a flying taxi ride at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. And roll, fold, flip – more nifty tech is coming up in the world of mobile phones.



One of the most popular stands at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona, Spain, this year was from South Korea’s SK Telecom, with its air taxi ride simulation using virtual reality (VR) headsets. Visitors queued up for hours to get on. As you step into the front seat of the four-seater air taxi mock-up, you wonder: will you be able to last the whole ride; what if you end up with a headache and dizziness from the VR experience?



The ride was three minutes long, but once I was strapped in with a seat belt and VR headset, another passenger’s headset had to be configured at least three times. I felt anxious sitting around indefinitely with a VR headset, not being able to see the real world. “We’re experiencing technical difficulties,” said SK Telecom.



Once the four of us in the taxi were equipped with working VR headsets, our flight from a futuristic Busan took off. It involved our seats physically moving in the direction we flew with a vertical drop towards the end, to landing on a rooftop.



Not unfamiliar to VR, I got off feeling a bit disoriented. Would I test other VR experiences again?



Absolutely.



There’s only one way to follow this journey and see how it improves or if it ever takes off.



Stepping into the metaverse for a flying taxi ride was just one of many innovations on display at MWC Barcelona, which returned to full force since the pandemic.



According to the GSMA (which represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide), over 88,500 people attended from around the world with 56% coming from industries adjacent to the mobile ecosystem. 



Another innovation, 3D-holographic telepresence, which is still a work in progress, was showcased by Telefónica, one of Spain’s biggest telecom operators that combines 5G, fibre and edge computing technologies. 



Chatting to FORBES AFRICA, Telefónica said it generates 3D avatars to use in different environments. “We have 21 cameras equipped in the cabin to generate an avatar, with each one producing two to three gigabytes of information per second, so that’s 40GB-50GB every second.”



Once the 3D avatar is created, it can be teleported in realtime to augmented reality (AR) and VR environments using different scenarios, useful for live streaming or recordings, explained Telefónica 



The company’s combination of various technologies is a means of access for augmented, virtual, mixed or metaverse reality applications in the future.



Despite the metaverse being in the limelight, the nextgeneration of mobile phones were on full display: roll, fold, flip – there was something for everyone.



Oppo showcased its new Find N2, and Find N2 Flip, its first clamshell foldable that will make its way to South Africa this April. The pocketable N2 Flip will go head-to-head with the Samsung Z Flip 4 and Huawei P50 Pocket, expanding on the growing segment. Elvis Zhao, Chief Marketing Officer for Overseas Markets at Oppo, told FORBES AFRICA: “Oppo is confident in the future of foldable phones; we estimate that in 2023, growth rates will be 100%, and better than 2022.” 



Its first folding phone, Find N, released in December 2021 exclusively in China, reportedly sold out within five minutes. “Moving forward, Oppo will offer two form factors, a clamshell and a horizontal folding phone to overseas markets,” said Zhao.



The Find N2 Flip has a unique design choice of a 3.26-inch vertical cover display, making it larger than Samsung’s 1.9-inch offering. It currently supports Oppo-only apps with third party support expected.



The pocketable device features a waterdrop Flexion Hinge that underwent durability tests for 400,000 folds. When opened, the crease is hardly noticeable. It can be used hands-free propped between 45 to 110-degree angles.



The device opens to 6.8-inches and at 191g, is marginally bigger than the Z Flip 4. It is powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 9000+ chip, 8GB of RAM, and a 4300mAh battery, which is the largest on any clamshell currently on the market. It has a 50MP Hasselblad camera and a 32MP selfie-cam that supports hand gestures to take photos and videos.



Oppo also showed prototypes of its Zero-Power Tag, a rival to the Apple AirTag; the Air Glass 2 assisted reality glasses suitable for the hearing impaired; and an OHealth H1 monitor to check your vitals at home. Available on the floor were more foldables like the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2, Honor Magic Vs and Tecno Phantom V Fold, which are not slated for the African market.



And behind a glass box were proof-of-concept rolling screens from Lenovo on a laptop, and its Motorola branded Rizr smartphone. The laptop appears to look its ThinkPad but can transform from 12.7-inches to 15.3-inches at the push of a button. The company said it aims to get between 20,000 to 30,000 rolls from the laptop, which is nowhere near what smartphone folds have been tested against.



Similarly, the Motorola Rizr rolls open from 5-inches to 6.5-inches, and when using certain apps like YouTube in landscape mode, the handset rolls open automatically. Lenovo has not shared further hardware specs for its rollable screens, other than it being in a conceptual stage.



Admittedly, it’s too early to get excited about rolling screens, but on the other hand, foldables have shown promise with each iteration over the years. A space we’re following closely, and if rumors are anything to go by, perhaps we can expect a foldable from Apple in a couple of years.

The Metaverse In Your Pocket: Nifty Tech And Trends That Africa Will See

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



The sister of a Saudi activist who was imprisoned in 2018 sued Twitter on Tuesday for allowing its employees to give private information identifying anonymous users to the Saudi government, which allegedly used the data to target and arrest dissidents—the latest allegation of Saudi government operatives using Twitter to spy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Areej Al-Sadhan, an American citizen, filed the case against Twitter and several Saudi officials in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of her brother, Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan, who was arrested in 2018 and is serving a 20 year sentence in Saudi Arabia for dissent against the current regime.



Al-Sadhan alleges Twitter gave identifying information about her brother to the Saudi government, which she said “blatantly violates” the social media company’s terms and conditions and “puts every Twitter user at risk.”



Her brother worked for the Red Crescent, a Red Cross-like aid group that operates in most Muslim countries, and allegedly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/religious-prisoners-conscience/forb-victims-database/abdulrahman-al-sadhan" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ran anonymous Twitter accounts</a>&nbsp;mocking government officials and religious clerics before he was sentenced to prison in 2021, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.



In addition to sharing information about her brother, Al-Sadhan claims Twitter allowed Saudi officials to access information on “thousands” of anonymous users, most of whom posted “critical or embarrassing information” about the Saudi regime, over a seven-month period in 2014 to 2015.



Forbes&nbsp;reached out to the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Tuesday’s lawsuit builds on the August 2022&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/08/09/ex-twitter-employee-convicted-of-sending-private-data-to-saudi-government/?sh=42db68ed0626">conviction</a>&nbsp;of former Twitter manager Ahmad Abouamm, who was allegedly recruited by the Saudi government to use his insider knowledge to share personal information of dissidents. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook played a major role during the Arab Spring, a youth uprising against governments in the Middle East and North Africa between 2010 and 2012. Its main purpose was facilitating communication among participants of the mass protests during that time. “Once the chosen platform for Arab youth revolutionizing to liberate their countries from despotic leadership during the Arab Spring, [Twitter]enabled its co-conspirators in the Saudi Criminal Enterprise to crush that very dissent,” Al-Sadhan’s lawsuit says.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is the&nbsp;<a href="https://fortune.com/2022/10/28/elon-musk-twitter-shareholder-alwaleed-bin-talal-binance-morgan-stanley/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">second-largest shareholder</a>&nbsp;in Twitter after principal owner Elon Musk, holding almost 6% of shares. He is the first cousin of Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, who has been the crown prince of Saudi Arabia since 2017.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



When he took over the company last year, Musk provided internal communications to various journalists in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/12/09/twitter-files-2-elon-musks-hyped-up-expos-unveils-secret-blacklists-and-shadow-banning--which-seem-very-similar-to-his-own-policies/?sh=49f5b4b56b38">series</a>&nbsp;called the Twitter Files, which was meant to bring to light some of the communications between Twitter executives and political campaigns or government officials. Although Musk has been critical of Twitter’s former CEO, Jack Dorsey, a report in April found Twitter has fully&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/04/27/twitter-has-complied-with-almost-every-government-request-for-censorship-since-musk-took-over-report-finds/?sh=7890378724ea">complied</a>&nbsp;with more than 80% of government requests to remove or alter content since Musk acquired the company—an increase from 50% before his ownership. The majority of those requests came from foreign countries such as Turkey, India and Russia, but Saudi Arabia was not included.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/16/twitter-rico-saudi-arabia/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jailed Saudi dissident, sister sue Twitter under RICO act in spy case</a>&nbsp;(Washington Post)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2019/11/06/former-twitter-employees-charged-with-spying-for-saudi-arabia/?sh=3ba77bc01a3f">Former Twitter Employees Charged With Spying For Saudi Arabia</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/08/09/ex-twitter-employee-convicted-of-sending-private-data-to-saudi-government/?sh=42db68ed0626">Ex-Twitter Employee Convicted Of Sending Private Data To Saudi Government</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/"></a>By Katherine Hamilton, Forbes Staff

Twitter tests several new features for its mobile app

Twitter Sued For Allegedly Helping Saudi Government Arrest Dissident

Is Africa’s tech industry missing out on top female talent?



By Tiana Cline



While African women continue to defy the odds as they assume various political leadership roles, the continent’s tech industry faces a serious gender issue. Despite endless global conversations around diversity within the tech sector, women still face significant barriers and are noticeably underrepresented in many roles, making it difficult for them to enter – and eventually lead – the industry.



According to a global women in leadership study conducted by IBM, gender equity is not a women’s issue, it’s an organizational one. “Women are significantly underrepresented at nearly every level of the workforce,” says Lindsay Kaplan, co-founder and Chief Brand Officer of Chief, a private network of executive women on a mission to change the face of leadership. “If companies prioritize gender diversity across their entire organizations through policies, investments, and a culture that meaningfully supports women, we’ll see a transformative impact — equity for everyone in the workplace and stronger, more resilient businesses.”



The study found that in Kenya, for example, there is even more stagnation in senior professional and non-executive managerial positions. Even though there are some incredible African women in IT like Catherine Muraga, the Managing Director at the Microsoft Africa Development Centre in Nairobi and Kendi Ntwiga, who heads up misrepresentation at Meta, the percentage of women hasn’t budged since the 2019 drop — and at a senior manager, it has even declined somewhat. And while the pandemic continues to have a disproportionate impact on women at work, in Kenya, geopolitical unrest was ranked the number one disruption facing women.



While Kaplan is happy to see slight progress in the representation of women at the C-suite and board level, she maintains that it is imperative that companies do more to fill the pipeline that leads to powerful positions.



One global technology company that is making massive strides in creating a place for women in technology is Cisco and more so, their Vice President for Middle East and Africa, Reem Asaad. Born in Egypt, Asaad moved to the United States at the age of 16 to study computer science.



“I had to leave because there weren’t a lot of accessible universities at the time and I wanted to study computer science. I went to the University of Houston in Texas and that was the beginning,” she says. Now based in Dubai, Asaad’s focus is collaborating with government, customers and partners but creating and developing female leadership is her passion. “Cisco should mimic the communities that it serves. That’s already inclusive and a starting point. We have amazing resources in Africa and we need to invest in female talent,” says Asaad. “Africa is fascinating because we talk about diversity in the region as if it’s something you have to do but our region is diverse by nature.”



Within her role, Asaad is working hard to change the diversity ratio in the Middle East and Africa. She is responsible for 77 countries – some advanced, others emerging – and within those countries, there are over 2,000 languages and six time zones to take into account.



“Cisco operates in 95 countries and 52 of those are in the mid-East and Africa. It’s diversity whether you like it or not, from age groups to colour to ethnic backgrounds. What you learn when you work in this region is how to understand the difference between equity and equality,” she says.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-equality-or-equity">EQUALITY OR EQUITY?</h3>



One McKinsey study on women in the workplace found that gender disparity can emerge as early as the first promotion opportunity – women account for 48% of entry-level hires but only 38% of first-level managers.



This ties in Asaad’s view that even though mentoring and coaching can help grow women into leadership positions, being on the ground is what gives her true visibility. “It’s important because if you don’t know the women around you, those women who could be the next leaders, you will miss them,” she says. “With men, you tend to hire someone because they have ‘potential’. With women, historically, it’s different. You always have to prove yourself in that position. This is a narrative we have to change. We need to hire female leaders because you see the potential.”



For Asaad, this is the difference between equity and equality: equality means giving everybody the same opportunity and the same tools and assuming that you will get similar outputs. Equity is the exact opposite. “Equity is giving everybody what they need. It’s about understanding that people have different strengths and weaknesses. For women, there are certain barriers, certain challenges… what if you could help them to bypass these things?” she asks. “Then women in positions of power can be treated on an equal footing to their male counterparts—judged for their actions and output alone.



Post-pandemic, the hybrid world of work has helped to level the playing field for women to take on leadership roles. In Saudi Arabia, for example, the rate of women participating in the IT sector is now higher than Silicon Valley. “You will be amazed at the number of female engineers, the quality, dedication, commitment and retention that you get,” adds Asaad. “One of our first engineers that got CCIE certified is a female leader in Saudi. We have the talent, but we need somebody to recognize that these women are out there and give them the opportunity.”



Digital transformation is a big part of job creation. Despite geopolitical challenges, governments with an appetite for innovation breed talent and new roles like the chief sustainability officer, renewable energy analyst or green engineer require future-forward skills. “In Africa, we have the skillsets. We have the workforce. We have Cisco Networking Academies that can step in where needed and females have a very big part in this transformation,” she says. “My role is to solve for three things: getting women in the door by managing unconscious bias to open access. Once women are in, how can you involve and retain them? And once they have been there, how can we progress them to goals.

gettyimages-1084167640-170667a

Let’s Tech About It: Why This Industry In Africa Has Gender Issues

After the MtGox hack, Tokyo put in place tough rules that later protected FTX customers. Now, from that secure base, it’s moving to allow blockchain technologies to flourish.



More than a million investors around the world were left stranded when FTX suddenly collapsed in November with an astonishing hole, estimated at $8.7 billion, in its balance sheet. The cryptocurrency exchange and its 130-plus affiliates have been operating in bankruptcy for five months, and a new management team claims to have recovered $7.3 billion of the missing cash and tokens. Yet only one component of the company has returned money to clients.



FTX’s Japanese unit allowed all verified accounts to resume withdrawals on February 21. As of April 25, nearly 10,000 individual and corporate clients had withdrawn crypto and cash worth approximately 23.4 billion yen ($175.4 million),&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.liquid.com/ja/%E5%87%BA%E9%87%91-%E5%87%BA%E5%BA%AB%E3%82%B5%E3%83%BC%E3%83%93%E3%82%B9%E3%81%AE%E9%80%B2%E6%8D%97%E7%8A%B6%E6%B3%81%E3%81%AB%E3%81%A4%E3%81%84%E3%81%A6-1682390331847?_ga=2.70873552.1915823815.1682596738-1460639900.1681400607&amp;_gl=1*1be4ztb*_ga*MTQ2MDYzOTkwMC4xNjgxNDAwNjA3*_ga_KM66WLZ8WM*MTY4MjU5NjczOC4yLjEuMTY4MjU5Njc4Mi4xNi4wLjA." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to</a>&nbsp;the company.



Count this as a victory for Japan’s financial regulators and the strict rules they’ve put in place to protect consumers in the wild and wooly world of crypto.



Japan cracked down with safety and soundness rules from a unified regulator after two big exchange hacks. But now, from that stable (and some in the industry would say overly restrictive) base, it’s seeking to come up with a strategy to become a leader in the collection of mostly decentralized, blockchain-based technologies known as web 3. The U.S., by contrast, has arguably been open to more innovation, but its dueling oversight agencies and lack of rules have created gaps in oversight and a culture of regulation by enforcement that makes strategic planning perilous.



Japan, an early adopter of digital assets, learned the value of regulation early and the hard way, through what remains arguably the most notorious crypto hack ever–the 2014 plunder of 800,000 bitcoins from MtGox, which had been the world’s largest bitcoin exchange. Four years later, Coincheck, another cryptocurrency exchange based in Tokyo, was robbed of $500 million worth of NEM blockchain’s xem coins.



“The drama and shakeup that the U.S. is experiencing around Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX, the Bahamas situation is not relevant in Japan,” says Sheila Warren, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for the industry worldwide. That’s because Japan has already been there and done that.



After the MtGox and Coincheck shocks, Japan’s primary financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), tightened rules on crypto exchanges, notes Ananya Kumar, associate director of digital currencies at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, the think tank’s unit addressing foreign policy, finance, and economics.



The FSA’s rules include:



<ul>
<li>Customer and company assets must be held separately, with holdings verified in annual audits.</li>



<li>Investors can&#8217;t borrow more than twice their investments for leveraged trades on exchanges. (Many cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, allow trading at 100x leverage.)</li>



<li>Exchanges must hold at least 95% of customer funds in cold wallets, which are not connected to the internet.</li>
</ul>



The measures proved instrumental in enabling clients of the Japanese subsidiary of FTX to withdraw their assets after its parent filed for bankruptcy in November. It remains unclear when other FTX clients will be able to get their money back, and how much of it they’ll get.



Japan has thus become a customer-friendly crypto haven but at the expense of stringent supervision of the freewheeling digital assets industry.



Now, Japan is building on that secure base, with a national economic strategy and a bid to lead its allies in creating rules that will effectively govern the industry.



“The FSA contributes to international policy discussion, including the one at the Financial Stability Board—an international organization that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system—on crypto-assets by leveraging its experience as a global forerunner in the regulation and monitoring of crypto-asset activities and markets,” the agency told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in written comments.



On April 6, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s web3 project team, tasked with drafting crypto-focused policy proposals, released a&nbsp;<a href="https://note.com/akihisa_shiozaki/n/n669dee962b15" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">white paper</a>&nbsp;outlining several recommendations, including a call for Tokyo to take the lead.



“After crypto winter, Japan may be the first to welcome spring,” the 35-page document predicts. “As a country that has overcome many hardships in the cryptocurrency industry, we are in a position to persuade the world about the immeasurable potential of web3.”



Suggestions in the paper cover tax reform, improved accounting standards, and regulation of blockchain-based finance. There’s even a recommendation for the government to drive the conversation about digital assets at the next Group of Seven (G7) summit, scheduled to be held in Hiroshima later this month.



“While Western financial regulators appear to be single-mindedly focused on tightening regulations in the midst of what is being called a crypto winter, I assess that Japanese financial regulators correctly understand the potential of blockchain and other technologies and are working to design regulations in a forward-looking manner,” Masaaki Taira, the team’s leader and a member of the House of Representatives, said in written comments to&nbsp;Forbes.



In February, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okslrifMl4M" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the Budget Committee of Japan’s House of Representatives</a>&nbsp;that there are “various possibilities for using web3” in Japan. He said that the Japanese government could employ blockchain-based mechanisms like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/article/what-are-nfts/?sh=609abead296f">non-fungible tokens</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2022/02/03/daos-arent-a-fad-theyre-a-platform/?sh=210b8c1719d0">decentralized autonomous organizations</a>&nbsp;to revitalize regions and promote “Cool Japan” — a national strategy aimed at promoting the country’s innovations and culture to the rest of the world that dates back to the early 2000s and echoes the U.K.’s “Cool Britannia” policies of the 1990s.



According to Taira, his team–including about 10 members of the Diet (Japan’s national legislature), six lawyers from the private sector with expertise in web3 and 10 leading Japanese digital influencers acting as advisors–works directly with Kishida and several government bodies. “The policy proposals compiled by the project team are adopted almost directly by the LDP, and a significant portion is adopted into government policy. It is an extremely powerful team,” he says.



“The way they talk about crypto is very crypto-native in terms of what the technology enables and what aspects of current regulation are just not workable,” says the Crypto Council’s Warren. “They are saying analogue regulation doesn&#8217;t work in digital environments.”



Japan does not have a long history of being hospitable to blockchain entrepreneurs. In addition to its heavy-handed regulation, Japan&#8217;s tax code is particularly hostile to the industry. It&#8217;s also hard to get new cryptocurrencies approved. After founding their gaming company Murasaki on home shores last year, Shinnosuke Murata and Shunsuke Sasaki recently decided to move their business to the Netherlands. “Why would two Japanese entrepreneurs with considerable experience starting companies in their own country go halfway around the world to set up a new business? wrote Murata in a&nbsp;<a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Why-I-had-to-leave-Japan-to-launch-my-gaming-company" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nikkei op-ed</a>&nbsp;in October. “Simply because it just was not feasible to do so in Japan.”



With a corporate tax rate set around 30% on unrealized gains from cryptocurrency holdings, it is a real struggle to get a new blockchain-based business off the ground, Murata tells&nbsp;Forbes. “Suppose you issue 100 tokens each worth $1 million. Even if you don’t realize gains, you will need to pay $30 million next year. Practically no startup founders can issue a token,” Murata explains.



Major U.S. crypto exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase have recently shut their subsidiaries in Japan,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coinbase.com/blog/halting-operations-in-japan" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">citing</a>&nbsp;“market conditions”. Overall, there are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fsa.go.jp/en/regulated/licensed/en_kasoutuka.xlsx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">37</a>&nbsp;crypto exchanges registered in the country, according to the FSA.



Additionally, the agency can take months to review proposals to list new tokens, which results in Japan&#8217;s trading market growing much slower at lower levels of liquidity than those of other countries, says Murata.



“Japan loses entrepreneurs that could build $100 million businesses because of those barriers,” he laments.



The existing framework makes it difficult for local entrepreneurs, agrees Roi Hirata, head of a new Japanese subsidiary of the Avalanche blockchain’s main developer company, New York-based Ava Labs. Avalanche’s brand recognition in Japan is exploding, Hirata says, which has prompted Ava Labs to start building a presence in the island nation. As a first step, his team has partnered with Japanese media giant GREE on a new blockchain game.



“I see a huge opportunity for both intellectual property providers and traditional businesses in Japan to adopt a blockchain like Avalanche, providing both decentralization and compliant service,” Hirata noted in an email to&nbsp;Forbes.



For now, its deep-pocketed tech giants that are leading the blockchain push in Japan.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/2023/02/07/forbes-blockchain-50-2023/?sh=577ea334319d">This year’s&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;Blockchain 50</a>, an annual list highlighting the best enterprise applications of the distributed-database technology, features three Japanese companies, Fujitsu, LINE and NTT.



Social media giant LINE helps create NFTs for 26 big customers including SoftBank, South Korea’s Naver search engine and Visa. According to the company, more than two million wallets have registered on its DOSI NFT platform since September. NTT Docomo, the country’s dominant mobile-phone service provider,&nbsp;has&nbsp;<a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/NTT-Docomo-to-invest-4bn-in-Web3-using-mobile-infrastructure" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pledged&nbsp;</a>to invest up to $4 billion in web3 infrastructure.



Electronics powerhouse Fujitsu teamed up with financial-services giants including Mitsubishi UFJ Mizuho and Sumitomo Mitsui to build the “Ryugukoku,” or the “Japanese Metaverse Economic Zone.” The initiative,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/2023/0227-02.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;in February, seeks to build a shared metaverse infrastructure for large enterprises.



Meanwhile, the FSA is planning to lift its ban on the domestic distribution of stablecoins later this year. The exact date and the coins that will be allowed have not been determined, but decisions are scheduled for June.



“This does not mean that all foreign issued stablecoins will be allowed without any restriction,” the agency told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;via written comments. “We will allow stablecoins to be handled after individual examination, if there are no problems from the viewpoint of user protection, etc. Examples include: foreign issuers in their countries being subject to the equivalent regulations as in Japan, and underlying assets being preserved appropriately.”



Late last year, the ruling party’s tax committee approved a proposal to exempt crypto startups that issue their own tokens from paying corporate taxes on unrealized gains. New proposals introduced in the white paper include tax exclusions for companies holding tokens issued by other companies that aren&#8217;t going to be traded short term and to limit taxable events only to instances when the assets are exchanged for traditional currencies.



“I think it is not only really exciting, but it&#8217;s actually paving the way to demonstrate to the rest of the world here is how you create forward-thinking flexible regulation that can navigate this tricky balance of preserving a wide space for innovation while also protecting consumers,” says Warren.



The overarching <a href="https://note.com/akihisa_shiozaki/n/n669dee962b15" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">message</a> is “Japan is back, Again.”\<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/"></a>



By Nina Bambysheva, Forbes staff

financial technology flowchart and basic income mining cryptocurrency with blockchain startup unicorn crypto money virtual diagram.businessman hand working with new modern computer.

What Japan Could Teach The U.S.—And The World—About Regulating Crypto

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



The already stuffed wallets of several billionaire insiders at Alphabet grew even fatter Thursday as shares of Google’s parent company rallied, after the company’s Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/05/10/google-io-2023-ai/?sh=448f91e95704">announcement</a>&nbsp;of various new artificial intelligence features—capped by integrating AI into Google’s search engine——largely cooled investors’ fears about a wide gap in the AI space between Google and rival Microsoft.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Alphabet’s stock surged more than 4% Thursday, bringing its two-day gain to 9% following CEO Sundar Pichai’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/10/google-adding-ai-to-search-engine-for-some-users-closing-in-on-microsofts-ai-push/?sh=73fba5123502">presentation</a>&nbsp;introducing a variety of ways the company plans to utilize AI in its search engine and beyond.



Shares of the Silicon Valley stalwart are now at their highest level since August.



Google demonstrated “AI powered search can still be the gateway” to online activity and drive advertising revenue growth, according to Bank of America analysts Justin Post and Joanna Zhao, deeming Wednesday’s presentation “a positive step in changing the AI narrative” that Microsoft and its ChatGPT-powered Bing search engine are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/04/17/google-stock-loses-57-billion-amid-microsofts-ai-lead-and-reports-it-could-be-replaced-by-bing-on-some-smartphones/?sh=7943e0145b07">better-positioned</a>&nbsp;to cash in on the AI craze.



Alphabet’s market capitalization swelled by nearly $120 billion over the last two trading sessions, solidifying its place as the fourth-most valuable public company in the world.



Largely reaping the benefits of the stock surge are Google’s billionaire current and former executives who added a total of more than $9 billion, including cofounders and board members Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who added $4.1 billion and $3.9 billion to their fortunes Thursday, respectively.



Fellow Alphabet board members Ravitark Ram Shriram and John Doerr added about $330 million to their combined fortunes Thursday, while early Google investor David Cheriton and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt grew more than $900 million richer.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuations">FORBES VALUATIONS</h2>



Page (worth $99.6 billion) and Brin ($95.3 billion) are the seventh- and 10th-richest people in the world, according to&nbsp;Forbes’ real-time billionaire&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#5ce0a38e3d78">tracker</a>. Page’s fortune surpassed that of Microsoft mogul Steve Ballmer and Mexican media magnate Carlos Slim Helu on Thursday, while Brin’s wealth pile surged past those of L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers and financial data king Michael Bloomberg.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



Alphabet has the “leading collection of AI/machine learning-driven businesses” of any technology company, Goldman Sachs analysts led by Eric Sheridan wrote in a Wednesday note to clients, adding the latest rollout caused the bank to become “increasingly constructive” on Alphabet’s long-term business strategy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chief-critic">CHIEF CRITIC</h2>



The freshly announced generative AI improvements are a “positive [step] in the AI battle” against Microsoft, but Alphabet continues to operate in “major catchup mode,” according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. Microsoft’s early investment in ChatGPT parent OpenAI gave it a “key head start” in the field that could prove challenging for Alphabet to overcome in the struggle for market share, Ives added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched in November to significant fanfare and was integrated into Bing in February, shortly after Microsoft&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/01/23/chatgpt-parent-open-ai-gets-game-changing-multibillion-dollar-boost-from-microsoft/">announced</a>&nbsp;it made a multibillion-dollar equity investment in OpenAI. Many&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/03/10/google-peacetime-ceo-sundar-pichai/?sh=359f71584ab1">considered</a>&nbsp;Google’s early response to the AI-fueled stiffer search competition to be subpar, with Alphabet shares&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/04/17/google-stock-loses-57-billion-amid-microsofts-ai-lead-and-reports-it-could-be-replaced-by-bing-on-some-smartphones/?sh=7943e0145b07">sliding</a>&nbsp;as much as 10% in the months following ChatGPT’s rollout.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/05/10/google-io-2023-ai/?sh=448f91e95704">Google Tries To Straddle Being &#8216;Bold&#8217; And &#8216;Responsible&#8217; In AI Product Blitz</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/10/google-adding-ai-to-search-engine-for-some-users-closing-in-on-microsofts-ai-push/?sh=73fba5123502">Google Adding AI To Search Engine For Some Users—Closing In On Microsoft&#8217;s AI Push</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/03/10/google-peacetime-ceo-sundar-pichai/?sh=359f71584ab1">Google’s ‘Peacetime’ CEO Sundar Pichai Faces Criticism As The AI War Heats Up</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/04/17/google-stock-loses-57-billion-amid-microsofts-ai-lead-and-reports-it-could-be-replaced-by-bing-on-some-smartphones/?sh=7943e0145b07">Google Stock Loses $57 Billion Amid Microsoft’s AI ‘Lead’—And Reports It Could Be Replaced By Bing On Some Smartphones</a> (Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/"></a>By Derek Saul, Forbes Staff

Category: Technology

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