Finextra's top impact study reports of 2023

With 2023 drawing to a close, we take a look back at our most downloaded impact study reports over the course of the past year. Our impact study reports are how-to, best practice guides that support those in the financial industry in their utilisation and optimisation of particular technologies, as well as providing an outlook at future trends to watch.

Top impact studies of 2023

10. AI and Cloud: The Proving Ground for Regulatory Resilience in 2024

This report, produced in association with Microsoft Azure, provides three solutions to leveraging AI and cloud to improve back-end processes rather than just front-end experiences.

9. Sustainable Cities: Enabling Positive Change through Innovation and Collaboration

This report is focused on how to finance sustainable cities, what we can do to identify solutions and work towards resolutions through Sustainable Finance Live panel sessions and workshops.

8. Keeping Pace with Customer Experience Demands during Cloud Migration

This report discusses how financial institutions are adapting to consumer demand and security concerns in the cloud transition, as explored in a Finextra and Temenos webinar.

7. How Banks can Expand the Omnichannel for Virtual Signing Experiences

This Finextra impact study, produced in association with OneSpan, explores how financial services providers can balance security, compliance, and remote interactivity with the need for a more human centric digital experience.

6. How to Formulate an Actionable Cloud Strategy

As part of the Financial Cloud Series, this Finextra explores the transformative potential of the cloud for the financial and technology industries.

5. Entering New and Niche Markets with BaaS

This report explores how embedded finance and banking as a service can help to transform the backbone of business operations, as explained in a Finextra and Temenos webinar.

4. Mainframe Modernisation, the Digital Endgame

This report provides insight into how mainframe modernisation is now an element of risk management, as discussed at a Finextra, Accenture and Amazon Web Services webinar.

3. Data, Risk, and Financial Instruments: Enabling Positive Change through Innovation and Collaboration

This report positions the main themes of the Sustainable Finance Live conference, which were data, risk, and financial instruments.

2. Power your Banking Value Chain with AI/ML at scale

This report, produced in association with Amazon Web Services (AWS), explains how in a world of rapidly advancing technology, AI and ML are essential to a bank's growth strategy.

1. What should European Banks prioritise in their Payments Modernisation Journeys?

This Finextra report, produced in association with Volante Technologies, explores the current European banking landscape and how payments modernisation is no longer a luxury.

Microsoft's Bing AI chatbot Copilot gives wrong election information

It appears that Microsoft's AI chatbot is an election truther.

According to a new study conducted by two nonprofit groups, AI Forensics and AlgorithmWatch, Microsoft's AI chatbot failed to correctly answer one out of three election-related questions.

The chatbot, formerly known as Bing Chat (it has since been renamed to Microsoft Copilot), didn't just get basic facts wrong either. Yes, the study found that Copilot would provide incorrect election dates or outdated candidates. But, the study also found that the chatbot would even completely make up stories such as controversies about the candidates.

For example, in once instance mentioned in the study, Copilot shared information about German politician Hubert Aiwanger. According to the chatbot, Aiwanger was involved in a controversy regarding the distribution of leaflets that spread misinformation about COVID-19 and the vaccine. However, there was no such story. The chatbot appeared to be pulling information about Aiwanger that came out in August 2023 where he spread "antisemitic leaflets" when he was in high school more than 30 years ago.

The creation of these made-up narratives in AI language models is commonly known as "hallucinations." However, the researchers involved with the study say that's not an accurate way to describe what's going on.

“It’s time we discredit referring to these mistakes as ‘hallucinations’," said Applied Math Lead and Researcher at AI Forensics Riccardo Angius in a statement. "Our research exposes the much more intricate and structural occurrence of misleading factual errors in general-purpose LLMs and chatbots."

The study also found that the chatbot evaded directly answering questions around 40 percent of the time. Researchers state that this is preferable to making answers up in instances where the chatbot does not have relevant information. However, researchers were concerned about how simple some of the questions the chatbot evaded were.

Another issue, according to the researchers, is that the chatbot did not appear to improve over time as it seemingly had access to more information. The incorrect answers were consistently incorrect, even if the incorrect answer provided by the chatbot had changed when asked a question multiple times. 

In addition, the study also found that the chatbot performed even worse in languages other than English, like German and French. For example, the study found that answers to questions asked in English resulted in an answer containing a factual error 20 percent of the time. When asked in German, the number of times an incorrect answer was provided jumped to 37 percent. The number of times the chatbot evaded answering a question in either language was much closer, with evasion occurring 39 percent and 35 percent of the time, respectively.

Researchers say that they contacted Microsoft with the study's findings and were told these issues would be addressed. However, researchers conducted more samples a month later and found "little had changed in regard to the quality of the information provided to users."

“Our research shows that malicious actors are not the only source of misinformation; general-purpose chatbots can be just as threatening to the information ecosystem," said AI Forensics Senior Researcher Salvatore Romano in a statement. "Microsoft should acknowledge this, and recognize that flagging the generative AI content made by others is not enough. Their tools, even when implicating trustworthy sources, produce incorrect information at scale.”

As AI becomes more prevalent in online platforms, studies like this one certainly provide reasons to be worried. Users are increasingly turning to AI chatbots to simplify their routine and increase productivity. The assumption is that these chatbots, with unlimited knowledge at their fingertips, will provide accurate information. This is simply not the case.

“Until now, tech companies have introduced societal risks without having to fear serious consequences," said Senior Policy and Advocacy Manager at AlgorithmWatch Clara Helming. "Individual users are left to their own devices in separating fact from AI-fabricated fiction.”

As we head into a presidential election year in the U.S., it's clear that there are potential election integrity issues at stake. With that in mind, researchers added their conclusion to their study: These problems will not be fixed by the companies alone. AI must be regulated.

Does Microsoft Excel Have an Esports Scene? Here’s What Fans Have To Say About It

As outrageous as it sounds Excel and esports do coincide with each other and a world tournament is sponsored by Microsoft. While the world is more acquainted with shooter and MOBA esports, this idea of spreadsheet creation appears to be a foreign concept. However, readers might be surprised to know that Microsoft Excel has a competitive side as well.

By definition, sports is all about doing an activity one enjoys and competing to be the best in it. In the case of Excel esports, an individual has to have great logical thinking capabilities to solve as many problems as possible in a limited time frame. According to a report from One Esports in 2021, the concept came into existence at the turn of 2020 then and was officially considered to be a sport.

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The rules are simple, in Microsoft Excel esports, players are given a case study in which they have to develop a model that allows them to calculate the revenue and production cost for a company under time limitations. Even though it sounds simple, these individuals have to consider various factors like sales, shipping, manufacturing, and labor before submitting a summary of their developed model within a 40-minute time limit.

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The criteria for a game to be considered a sport is it has to be challenging and competitive to push players to their limits. In the case of esports, similar conditions apply as well, but the only difference is that the game is played on a digital medium like a PC or console. For this very reason, Microsoft Excel Esports came into consideration as it requires participants to develop a highly optimized calculating model to solve a problem given to them in certain time constraints. To be the very best, players have to create mathematical expressions that would give them the shortest and most accurate route to solving problems given to them.

Microsoft Excel esports checks out all these above-mentioned criteria to create a productivity-based esports. Since most esports around the world are based on quick thinking and reflexes, this take on the genre is more focused on hunting talents who could devise methods to improve calculating algorithms.

During the qualification round, a total of 128 participants are judged on their speed and their accuracy in finding the real answer. Their speed and right answers help them to move above the leaderboards to become the best among all. To raise the stakes, each participant is eliminated after every stage, and only ten players are left for the finals.

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Financial Modeling World Cup is one of the biggest events of the newly devised esports which involves players having vast knowledge of Microsoft  Excel. The winner of the recent FMWC tournament, Andrew ‘The Annihilator’ Ngai, was awarded $3000 as prize money for the tournament. The following was said by Andrew after securing his win at the tournament:

Before I got into Excel competitions I had already been using Excel for more than a decade, so that quite naturally helped me in these competitions

General people who use Excel spreadsheets on a day-to-day basis can join the tournament, provided they are good enough with their logic. Some of the competitors even have ten years of experience with the software, which makes them a force to be reckoned with. Like other general sports, the participants of the Excel tournament have to train hard and develop themselves to compete and be the best among all.

The general audience of gaming does not see Microsoft Excel esports as a game to compete for as it is slow and only involves words and numbers. Some have criticized the existence of the activity for being boring and demand it not to be called esports. Moreover, they have even called it a general coding tournament rather than a sporting event that requires broadcasting.

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On the other hand, many have considered this esport and were impressed by the capability of the people to create algorithms in a short span. Some have even taken the opportunity to joke about their own work life and wished to have commentary running behind them as they do their job.

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Netizens even made fun of the event as players were given Gaming PCs to work on their algorithm. The reception of the public shows that Excel esports has a long way to go to deserve respect from the public. However, considering how people were apprehensive of traditional esports back in the day, we do believe Microsoft Excel has a bright future as a competitive sport.