The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has recently announced its plans to launch a unique fund designed to support startups that are creating real-world solutions to protect children online through the use of emerging technology. The UNICEF Venture Fund is actively seeking firms that are willing to experiment with artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain in its program countries. The solutions developed by these companies should have the potential to create significant change for children worldwide.
The fund is primarily interested in practical solutions that can help young individuals identify misinformation and develop media literacy. Successful firms will receive up to US$100,000 in equity-free funding. UNICEF is particularly interested in early-stage startups that have a working prototype and focus on open-source licensing and practice.
UNICEF is eager to leverage AI and Web3 solutions to combat misinformation. The organization is open to funding platform-agnostic, interactive games that encourage fact-checking practices. In addition, it is interested in novel watermarking solutions. The second objective of the fund is to support firms that are collecting vast amounts of data to build safe AI models. Firms that are creating data collection and management systems are more likely to receive funding, as are those that are experimenting with solutions to reduce cognitive bias in the process.
Companies that are creating solutions to foster digital trust, including those developing decentralized protocols for ownership and licensing, are also of interest to UNICEF. The organization is particularly interested in AI-based solutions that can monitor online risks and DLT-backed Know Your Customer (KYC) tools.
UNICEF has a long history of working with emerging technologies and has used blockchain and digital assets to assist children in need. The organization has invested over $400,000 in developing countries to encourage the adoption of blockchain and Web3 technologies. The first cohort of the fund saw firms from Argentina, Sri Lanka, and Nepal receive funding to develop decentralized solutions.
In other news, SBI Sumishin Net Bank (NEObank) has announced its plans to offer security tokens to its clients. This move is seen as a disruptive play in the ecosystem. NEObank will offer security tokens from Japanese-based multinational firm Mitsui & Co Digital Asset Management to its nearly eight million customers. This will be NEObank’s first foray into security tokens.
Security tokens are digital representations of asset rights that are recorded on the blockchain. They serve as investment contracts and are subject to securities regulations. Mitsui launched a “direct-to-consumer” security token service in 2023, aiming to eliminate the reliance on brokers in the value chain. With this new arrangement, NEObank will act as introducers.
For AI to function correctly within the law and thrive in the face of growing challenges, it needs to integrate an enterprise blockchain system. This system ensures data input quality and ownership, keeping data safe and guaranteeing the immutability of data. The implications of this emerging technology are vast and will undoubtedly shape the future of AI.
