The graph represents a network of 1,859 Twitter users whose tweets in the requested range contained "#FinServ", or who were replied to or mentioned in those tweets. The network was obtained from the NodeXL Graph Server on Sunday, 24 April 2022 at 02:01 UTC. The requested start date was Sunday, 24 April 2022 at 00:01 UTC and the maximum number of days (going backward) was 14. The maximum number of tweets collected was 7,500. The tweets in the network were tweeted over the 5-day, 15-hour, 35-minute period from Monday, 18 April 2022 at 08:25 UTC to Sunday, 24 April 2022 at 00:00 UTC.

The graph represents a network of 1,483 Twitter users whose tweets in the requested range contained "#FinServ", or who were replied to or mentioned in those tweets. The network was obtained from the NodeXL Graph Server on Sunday, 20 March 2022 at 01:39 UTC. The requested start date was Sunday, 20 March 2022 at 00:01 UTC and the maximum number of days (going backward) was 14. The maximum number of tweets collected was 7,500. The tweets in the network were tweeted over the 3-day, 6-hour, 59-minute period from Tuesday, 15 March 2022 at 03:22 UTC to Friday, 18 March 2022 at 10:22 UTC.

Agriculture finance represents an important element of eradicating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development, smallholders manage over 80% of the world's estimated 500 million small farms and provide over 80% of the food consumed in a significant part of the developing world, making a major contribution to poverty reduction and food security. Most smallholder farms are in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and in both regions over 80% of farmland is managed by smallholders. Even though these farmers are generally characterized by limited resources--particularly in terms of land--and dependence on household members for farm labor, they represent a critical part of food systems in developing countries. In light of the size and importance of the smallholder farming sector, the development community has a growing focus on providing these farmers with the funding they need to thrive.

On Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. announced AI for Health, a new $40 million, five-year program and part of the AI for Good initiative, that will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) technology to empower researchers and organizations addressing some of the world's toughest challenges in health. "Artificial intelligence has the potential to solve some of humanity's greatest challenges, like improving the health of communities around the world," said Brad Smith, president, Microsoft. "We know that putting this powerful technology into the hands of experts tackling this problem can accelerate new solutions and improve access for underserved populations. That's why we created AI for Health." In a new era of tech intensity, in which technology is reshaping every organization and becoming embedded in the fabric of every aspect of our lives, digital advances will continue to reshape our world in profound ways.

Called FARM (Financial and Agricultural Recommendation Models) and delivered in partnership with social enterprise Agrics, the project is providing more than 200,000 small-scale farmers in Kenya with the hardware and software they need to analyse big data regarding issues such as weather patterns and soil quality. The platform uses AI to "intelligently" collect and process the data, before providing the user with personalised insights and recommendations to optimise crop yield and eliminate inefficiencies. In sustainability terms, results of acting on the recommendations are likely to be better water management, the use of less fertiliser, the generation of less food waste throughout the value chain and improved incomes for farmers.

Imagine a world where blockchain allows migrants to securely and instantly send money home without any transfer fees. Or consider the possibilities if artificial intelligence algorithms capable of analyzing satellite imagery could enable smallholder farmers to get non-predatory loans without the need for a credit score. If these visions excite you, you're not alone – they were key topics of discussion amongst a group of leaders in financial inclusion from around the world at the latest Rethinking Financial Inclusion program at Harvard Kennedy School in October. Rethinking Financial Inclusion is an executive program presented by Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) in collaboration with Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education. It combines data and an evidence-based problem solving approach to explore frontier issues in finance for individuals who are underserved.

Most studies about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on jobs and the economy have focused on developed countries such as the United States and Britain. Through my work as a scientist, technology executive and venture capitalist in the US and China, I have come to believe that the gravest threat AI poses is to emerging economies. In recent decades, China and India have presented the world with two different models on how countries can climb the development ladder. In the China model, the nation leveraged its large population and low costs to build a base of blue-collar manufacturing. The country then steadily worked its way up the value chain by producing better and more technology-intensive goods.

The lending and credit scoring sector have more data than ever before at their disposal. How they leverage this data to create value for their clients and social impact determines the outcomes they can achieve in the financial services space. In 1959, Arthur Samuel, a pioneer in the field of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence during an era when computers filled an entire building, defined machine learning as "a field of study that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed." During a recent keynote, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella referred to data used in this context as "the new electricity," calling our current era a "fourth industrial revolution" following steam, electricity and digital technology. Scott Guthrie, Microsoft executive vice president, also acknowledged that data is "enabling every business to be the disrupters of their industry by harnessing the power to drive insight from this data."

Editor's note: Throughout 2017, NextBillion is organizing content around a monthly theme, dedicating special attention to a specific sector alongside our broader coverage. This post is part of our focus on entrepreneurship for the month of July. The first part of that dystopian vision has already come to pass, as the constant procession of new AI and robotics breakthroughs in recent years demonstrates (see the links above). The second part – the mass job losses – has fortunately not yet arrived. But if you believe the emerging consensus of the economists and futurists who study these things, it won't be long before it does.