🏦More defenders of DEI🏦

What's in the water when it comes to banks👀?

Well some would say they know where the money is😅.

JP Morgan, Goldman sachs and now Deutsche bank are all companies who have publicly came out in support of DEI✊🏿

Why? Well DEI is good for business. Why? Well it'll help them attract and engage more customers, make better decisions and attract/retain staff💁🏽

This week Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing said at a press conference Thursday the company stands “firmly behind” its “integral” DEI programs, stating the company can “see how Deutsche Bank has benefited from it”🙌🏾

You can keep abreast of the developments in this space here

😬Competitive advantage🏦

In some differentiation between the banks we see that Citi isn't going back-to-office as embraces the 3-2 form of hybrid working🏦

Not quite the 4 day work week (which has become more popular in the UK), but as the FT covers, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser has told her top executives that the policy will be to continue to allow most employees to work remotely at least 2 days a week citing it as a "competitive advantage" in the sense that it acts recruitment tool for Citi to attract candidates who have shunned return to office mandates at rival firms🏢

You can read more here but it speaks to the wider move we see as workers are faced with a real choice about the format and style of work they want💡

For those who want another choice, with quite a curious statement from the CEO of a big tech company, Michael Dell CEO of (go on take a guess...😅), Dell, says he’s ‘retiring’ hybrid work, claiming that email exchanges waste time: ‘For all the technology in the world, nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction’

We assume we don't think he means we shouldn't buy any more Dell tech and go back to some sort of Gregorian Subsistence living😅, but what he does mean is that all employees who live close to an office are expected in.

Unsurprisingly, The employee survey score referencing whether Dell workers would recommend the company to others took a nosedive, decreasing overall from 63 to 48 in one year — sources told Business Insider. They'll be hoping to ride that out🧐

🪙A good use of Stablecoins🪙

So what's wrong with money? Well it turns out moving it from A-B can be slow and costly (a number of intermediaries make money from moving money securely)💰

This can be a real problem in poorer countries and remote locations where access to capital and infrastructure or funds to move it can be prohibitive😢

Well many reliant on starlink found that an issue. Afterall, if you can't pay your internet bill you have no internet to move the money to pay it. Given many local banks across Africa, Latin America, and Asia struggle with international payments, SpaceX to look for alternatives in the crypto world💵

Long story short Space X partnered with Bridge, a stablecoin payments platform, to accept payments in various currencies and instantly convert them into stablecoins which it could use and bank and convert💱

So what is a stablecoin? Well, Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value, often by pegging their value to a real-world asset like the U.S. dollar or gold. This is in contrast to other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, which can be very volatile💸

Stablecoins represent a $205 billion market largely driven by real-world use, and not speculation like many crypto bets, particularly in emerging markets where they remove friction, enabling cheaper, near-instant transactions💰

So what? 

In a world where there is a lot of hype and critique of crypto, it's interesting to see the underlying blockchain technology really embed itself as a solution 

👀AI revolutionising Academia👀

So Open AI released a new product called Deep Research. It's a tool which is better at not making stuff up, and sourcing and citing where it's got its information from. It's also meant to be good at summarising and evaluating academic articles.💻

It sounds very similar to a tool called... Deep Research launched by Google powered by its Gemini engine, which seemingly does the exact same thing😅

Cough surely we think some sort of lawsuit is coming🧑🏾‍⚖️

Outside of that, it got us thinking about academia. Isn't this what a number of academics have built their careers on?👨🏾‍🎓

Justifying the time to find, read and evaluate previous research has been a big part of the job. Some will say the comprehension and thinking is the bit AI isn't doing, and actually this will speed up time to help academics do more thinking about the next frontiers of science research in particular🤔.

Nevertheless, given the move towards tech like Alphafold and more computational biology, to what extent will this mean labs can be both more productive and more efficient (ie reduce their costs (cough some people)? Ultimately only time will tell, but again an interesting move towards how AI may be coming for some of the most highly "skilled" people across society in a way unlike previous tech revolutions which have often usurped the "lowest skilled"🤔

So what? 

We think it will tend to leading to academics doing more. More time to think because some of the laborious literature review is sped up. We don't see this being successful in pushing academics out of their tenures but instead in exchange for more output. Also the public sector (Which quasi funds a lot of academic research) often has fewer incentives to reduce costs.

😅OG Facebook😅

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased a “return to OG Facebook” as part of his key goals for 2025 in Wednesday’s Q4 earnings call with investors😲

Now what does he mean by OG facebook? Well we hope it's not OG, OG to the point it reverts to Mark Z's earliest websites which were famous for rating women on their looks🤔.

Maybe more docile, he wants us to start passively aggressively poking people again or Perhaps, is he talking about the version where you had to "wall" people and carefully curate your Top 8 friends😅

Or maybe he's just realised, given the prospect of his new BFF president Trump's tariffs, we all need to learn to survive off of our own land and what the world desperately needs is more FarmVille requests🧑🏻‍🌾

We suppose in his drive for rooting out poor performance he won't be winning any awards for this insight of the week when he was asked what he meant when he claimed “I think there are a lot of opportunities to make [Facebook] way more culturally influential than it is today”🤣

It's a good thing that one of his decisions is paying off even if that metaverse one isn't so far with 2024 losses of $17.7 billion, bringing the total losses for close to $70 billion for the past six years. At the same time, the division generated just $2.1 billion in revenue last year meaning his insight that 2025 pivotal year in determining the trajectory of Meta’s long-term project couldn't be more true💸 

But back to the good news as they reported fourth quarter earnings per share of $8.02 on revenue of $48.4 billion, higher than expectations for EPS to reach $6.75 on revenue of $46.9 billion, according to Bloomberg estimates which see shares pop 4% up on the news. Turns our AI helps people spend more money on ads📈

So much for cuts too as Meta had 74,067 employees as of Dec. 31, up 10% from a year earlier⬆️

It's clear there is work to do because as we reported on our instagram there wasn't great news from a survey of 1,000 teens on whether major technology companies like Google, Apple, Meta, TikTok, and Microsoft cared about their well-being and safety, made ethical decisions, protected their private data, and more😲

• 64% of surveyed U.S. teens don’t trust Big Tech companies to care about their mental health 

• 52% don’t think that Big Tech will keep their personal information safe 

• 47% of those surveyed don’t believe these companies will make responsible decisions over their use of AI.

•  51% don’t think the companies are fair and inclusive when considering the needs of different users.

•  (53%) also don’t think major tech companies make ethical and responsible design decisions (think: the growing use of dark patterns in user interface design meant to trick, confuse, and deceive.

• and well-being and 62% don’t think the companies will protect their safety if it hurts profits.

So what?

Maybe a some sort of a VR nicer Facebook will make things better. We aren't so convinced 

🔞iPhone's first x rated app🔞

So we don't want to be flagged on your systems from using a word that begins with P that rhymes with corn but its relevant to the story🌽

So the EU forced Apple to let users download apps via other App stores in the EU on to the iPhone. Apple protested for years as it weakens their walled gardens and also it claimed security and privacy for users📱

One alternative app store, AltStore PAL, allows a range of apps that the Apple one doesn't, including ones for the purpose of that word beginning with a P that rhymes with corn📲

The store billed an app called "Hot Tub" as "the first Apple-approved porn app" in a post Monday on social platform X.

The app made it through an Apple review process for security and functionality.

Apple said "We are deeply concerned about the safety risks that hardcore porn apps of this type create for EU users, especially kids," then stating

"Contrary to the false statements made by the marketplace developer, we certainly do not approve of this app and would never offer it in our App Store." They then went on to say

"The truth is that we are required by the European Commission to allow it to be distributed by marketplace operators like AltStore and Epic who may not share our concerns for user safety," Apple said of Hot Tub🔞

The reality is its choice, On one hand Apple has long argued that allowing "sideloading" of apps onto iPhones or iPads from places other that the App Store brings with it the risk of deceptive, dangerous and dubious digital content, but on the other hand, there is an argument for freedom of choice as Epic games has long argued🧐

So what?

It's unlikely Hot Tub will go anywhere, but we don't think it'll be long until other developers may launch their own apps. Anyone fancy an Only fans app😅?

📈 The tools behind the tech📉

📦Product📦

• Machine learning in production

📏Design📏 

• A global design system

👩🏿‍💻Code👩🏿‍💻

• Every HTML element

🏢The business behind the tech🏢

• A 20 year old small companies

• Manager v craftsman

• Was the Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a total disaster
  

🙌🏾Depop🙌🏾

Take a look below and - 

click source or flag that you heard it about from Colorintech to help make sure you application gets a thorough look😉

• Machine Learning

• Technical CRM Operations

• Backend Engineering

• Data Science

• iOS Engineering

• Platform Engineering

• Engineering Managers

• Finance Business Partner

See more info here 

🙌🏾ARM jobs🙌🏾

Check out the latest roles at arm as there is something for everyone from Software to Social Media and Hardware to ... well Accounts

Senior Revenue Analyst
Senior Financial Accountant
Social Media Specialist
Staff Firmware Engineer
Hardware Application Engineer

🙌🏾An event🙌🏾

Microsoft for Startups and Level39 are inviting you to their upcoming "Women Founders Get Together" event that will take place on Thursday 6th of March. Women Founders Get Together: Securing Investment Tickets, Thu, Mar 6, 2025 at 12:00 PM | Eventbrite

This event aims to empower women founders and prepare them for their next fundraising endeavours. The event will start with a panel discussion featuring Microsoft, Auquan, Playfair Capital and Conduit Connect followed by a networking session.

Your expertise and insights would be invaluable to these inspiring entrepreneurs, and your presence will help cultivate connections that could lead to future collaborations.

When: Thursday, March 6th, 2025, from noon to 3pm UK time

Where: Level39, London, UK

To attend, please register here.

😃What we are consuming😃

🛫Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight

⚽️An AI job at Arsenal

📖Blockchain book launch