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🗞️Diversity and inclusion news🗞️ |
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🏢AI bias in the public sector🏢
The Guardian launched this headline finding, "bias found in AI system used to detect UK benefits fraud"
Turns out an AI system used by the UK Department for Work and Pensions to detect welfare fraud has shown bias according to people’s age, disability, marital status and nationality.
The Guardian was privy to an internal assessment of a machine-learning programme used to vet thousands of claims for universal credit payments across England that showed it incorrectly selected people from some groups more than others when recommending whom to investigate for possible fraud.
You can read more here |
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🤰🏽Too good to be true🤰🏽
Netflix was in the news after being accused of rolling back its parental leave policy.
Netflix began offering unlimited parental leave to employees during the first year of their child’s birth in 2015, making it one of the USA's most generous employers. However, it has since changed its wording around the policy, bringing in ambiguity and, according to some employees, putting adverse pressure on them if they want to take more time off.
Not quite the walk back that the press may want you to think but you can read this and make up your own mind |
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🧠Things that make you go hmmm🧠 |
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🚶🏽♀️The consequences of RTO🏢
According to a recent study of 54 tech and finance companies, there was a 14% increase in employee departures after implementing RTO (return to office) mandates👋🏾
The story gets more interesting though, as the employees who left were more likely to be women, hold higher-level roles and list more skills on their LinkedIn profiles👀
Filling vacant positions post-RTO also took 23% longer, on average, and hiring rates dropped by 17%. suggesting the folks are harder to replace once they leave😮
You can read what a bunch of folks on Linkedin thought about it
So what?
We've spoken all year long about the adverse equity impacts of RTO mandates and even in the final edition of the year the academic community is confirming what we know. |
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🤖AI does the job 🤖
We've spoken about how Klarna was making a number of productivity gains and now its CEO told Bloomberg that they haven't made a single hire in the past year, instead investing in artificial intelligence to plug gaps from employee attrition😮
Whilst Klarna's headcount dropped 22%, to 3,500 — Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said — an OpenAI-powered assistant is credited with doing the work of 700 customer service agents📞
Klarna has lofty sights as it has recently filed for a U.S. IPO. Nonetheless, not everyone is safe as even the CEO may find his role upended as an AI-generated Siemiatkowski delivered its most recent quarterly results😱
It's not all doom and gloom for those left doing manual work at Klarna as the firm has promised that productivity gains will be reflected in employee paychecks so we'll see what info we can dig up on that🤔
So what?
It appears to work for Klarna so we don't think it'll be long until more companies follow suit as the productivity gains will be vast. |
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👩🏽💻Not so green tech👨🏿💻
TikTok’s annual carbon footprint is larger than that of Greece, with the average user generating greenhouse gases equivalent to driving an extra 123 miles in a gasoline-powered car each year.
Whilst it's not common for greeks to have the heating on they use a lot of air con in the summer which offers some food for thought🇬🇷
Greenly, a carbon accounting consultancy based in Paris, places TikTok’s 2023 emissions in the US, UK and France at about 7.6 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) – higher than those associated with Twitter/X and Snapchat in the same region📈
Even though Instagram has nearly double TikTok’s user base, TikTok's emissions from its 1bn users are greater than Instagram because it is so much more addictive with the average Instagram user spends 30.6 minutes on the app a day compared to the average TikTok user spending 45.5 minutes scrolling📲
One minute on TikTok will burn 2.921 grams of CO2e, on average, while one minute on YouTube will burn 2.923 grams. One minute on Instagram burns 2.912 gram with the calculations made up by incorporating the emissions associated with data centers, (which made up about 99% of the footprint), and the emissions associated with charging devices after using the platforms🏭
Link to more info here
So what?
Unlike Google and Meta TikTok has no publicly available emissions data despite a pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030. Given they didn't respond to the Guardian's request for comment it looks like they may be a way off for now
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📈 The tools behind the tech📉
📦Product📦
📏Design📏
👩🏿💻Code👩🏿💻
🏢The business behind the tech🏢
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🌐Partner Events & Opportunties 🌐 |
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🙌🏾Dojo🙌🏾
New Event all about Professional Growth with Dojo
On Jan 21st, Dojo is teaming up with Colorintech to host an exclusive event focused on professional growth, where you get to hear from extraordinary people about how to progress and grow when you’re later in your career!
Firstly, we’ll have a fireside chat with Dojo's CRO, Rohan Pradhan, on 'Stepping into Leadership' where he’ll share his lessons learned as:
Deliveroo's COO (Chief Operating Officer) / CSO (Chief Sales Officer);
A founding team member of Amazon's Prime Now's 1 hour delivery service for third party merchants;
As a founder of Chefstro.
Then we’ll have an insightful panel on 'Progression and Growth into Senior Career Positions' with:
Faith McKenzie - Customer Service Team Manager at Dojo
Matt Dennis - Software Engineer at Dojo
External Guest: Zeella Labram - Senior Product Manager at Microsoft
Lastly, we'll also have DELICIOUS food and drinks catering courtesy of Dojo!
This event is a great opportunity for those who have a few years of experience in their careers and are looking to progress into senior roles.
Please see the key details below:
Date: 21st January 2025
Time: 18:00 - 21:30 BST
Location: London, W2
Would you like to make professional growth your new year's resolution? If so, then be sure to register your interest for a space using the link below:
https://lu.ma/d7k9uu0m
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🙌🏾Entrepreneur In Residence📽
For our final day, we're having a greater focus on post Series A insights and support, where you'll be hearing from:
Husayn Kassai
-> Former CEO and Co-Founder of Onfido ($650m+ Exit)
-> Current CEO and Founder of Quench.AI
Louise Hill
-> Founder and CEO of GoHenry (Valued $200m+)
Amman Ahmed
-> Founder and Former CEO of Music for Pets ($50M Exit entirely Bootstrapped)
This opportunity is ideal for founders who have:
Raised a seed round or equivalent of £500k+/ or have an ARR of over £100k
You can commit to attending in person in London on the 22nd Jan;
Based in the UK.
If you're interested,
Date: 22nd January 2025
Time: 8:00 - 15:00
Location: London.
Application Link: https://form.typeform.com/to/C7QTAONU
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🙌🏾A message from Barclays🙌🏾
Last month, Barclays Eagle Labs attended Black Tech Fest to engage with potential and existing founders looking for support networks. Both as part of a panel and at their stand, the team discussed how they could support business growth in various ways, like:
- Eagle Labs Academy – a free online learning resource to help you gain the skills to start or grow your business
- Business growth programmes – from helping you understand the funding landscape to providing the foundations for scaleups to succeed, Eagle Labs have a programme suitable for every stage of your business journey
- Mentoring from industry specialists to help you navigate challenges and grow your business
- Access to their Demo Directory, a platform that gives founders the opportunity to connect with investors
- Events focused across the technology sector.
Whether you're thinking about founding your own business, already raising capital or want to help your marketing team improve their skills, Eagle Labs Academy can help. All founders and their team can register, and you don’t have to already bank with Barclays.
Eagle Labs has teamed up with experts across the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem who've contributed content and inspirational founder stories, in written and video format, for you to learn in your own way at a pace that suits you.
Want to take your business idea or growth journey to the next level? Visit Eagle Labs Academy and sign up now to keep up to date with the courses.
If you have any questions or want some more information, get in touch with the Eagle Labs team.
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🙌🏾The latest from the Colorintech team🙌🏾 |
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