23 : 12 : 22 : Weekly Debrief

Canada – Global luxury group and sustainability pioneer Kering has teamed up with cosmetics company L’Occitane Group to collectively protect and restore biodiversity with the creation of the Climate Fund for Nature.

The joint initiative aims to mobilise resources from the luxury, fashion and beauty industries to collectively support biodiversity restoration and conservation on a large scale. The Climate Fund for Nature will bring significant capital to projects supporting nature protection and restoration, mostly in regions where investors source raw materials.

Criteria that make a project eligible include the ability to deliver measurable outcomes for nature, climate and local livelihoods, but also to contribute to women empowerment. The fund will back projects helping farmers transition to regenerative practices or deliver carbon credits, for instance.

‘A Net Zero and nature-positive economy requires huge amounts of capital, and the ambitious contribution of corporates is essential to achieve this transition,’ says Anne-Laurence Roucher, deputy CEO of sustainable investment company Mirova.

With this symbiosis strategy, the organisations hope to fulfil ambitious commitments – £122.3m ($148.7m, €140m) has already been pledged, with plans to onboard new partner companies in the near future.

China – Taking effect as early as January 2023, the Chinese Cyberspace Administration will implement new rules overseeing the use of deepfake, so that China becomes the first country to regulate the technology.

The Administrative Provisions on Deep Synthesis regulation aims to protect Chinese citizens by banning digital voice or image impersonation without consent. Regulators define ‘deep synthesis’ as the use of technologies including deep learning and AR to generate text, images, audio, video or create virtual scenes. With these guidelines, anyone who intends to create a deepfake is compelled to contact the person whose voice or image they plan to use and can only proceed if given consent.

This government initiative comes in the face of growing concerns about harmful AI use cases, such as scams or identity theft. If successful, China’s AI moderation model could be adopted by other countries. As the use of AI is exponentially democratised, whether it is in an AI-verstisement or for AI-powered art, giving people power and control over their image and identity is a key challenge for big tech.