Why I believe in tech for good…and why investors should too

Asta Diabaté
5 min readMar 1, 2020

My nascent investment thesis — of sorts

It is hard to be optimistic about tech these days. If in the early 2010s we were all keen and positive, now we’ve seen the consequences — albeit unintended — of big tech.

The tech-lash is real and governments are scrambling and scratching their heads for solutions. Presidential hopeful Senator Warren wants to break up big tech. Andrew Yang (sadly no longer running for President) wanted to give every American a universal basic income to help the country deal with the challenges of automation.

I am not blind to any of this. Speak to everyone I know and they’ll tell you I’ve been vocal and critical about the issues tech companies have helped create. One of them is bias in AI, an issue that is finally being talked about but not as much as I would like. I spent a whole internship looking at the GDPR and what businesses should be doing about it. Although it has its issue, I am glad that something is being done to help preserve the privacy of individuals — at least in Europe.

Still, I believe that tech can be a force for good.

I’ve seen this first-hand during my undergrad. I was a member of It Happens Here Oxford, a campaign against sexual violence on campus. Through the help of volunteers and amazing people…

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Asta Diabaté

Sharing my two cents about tech, biz & sometimes policy. Oxford & Sciences Po Paris Alumna