WEBVTT

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In almost all aspects of our lives

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we have perfect information
available instantaneously,

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My phone can tell me
everything about my finances,

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where precisely I am on a map,

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and the best way to my next destination,

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all with a click of a button.

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But this availability
of information and transparency

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almost completely disappears
when it comes to consumer products.

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If you go to the seafood counter
at your local supermarket,

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you can probably choose
between several different types of fish.

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But chances are,
they won't be able to tell you

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who caught the fish,
where precisely it was caught,

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whether it is sustainable
to catch it there,

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and how it got transported.

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And that holds true
for almost everything we buy.

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Every can of soup,

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every piece of meat, every T-shirt.

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We as humans, right now,

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are destroying the only thing
we really need to survive:

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Our planet.

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And most of the horrible problems
that we're facing today,

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like climate change

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and modern slavery in supply chains,

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come down to decisions.

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Human decisions to produce something
one way and not another.

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And that's how we, as consumers,

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end up making decisions
that harm the planet

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or our fellow humans.

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By choosing the wrong products.

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But I refuse to believe
that anybody here in this room,

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or frankly, anybody on this planet,

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really wants to buy a product

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that harms the planet
or our fellow humans.

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If given the choice.

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But you see, choice is a loaded word.

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Choice means there's another option.

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Choice means you can afford that option.

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But choice also means

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you have enough information
to make an informed decision.

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And that information nowadays
simply just doesn't exist.

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Or at least it's really,
really hard to access,

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But I think this is about to change.

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Because we can use technology
to solve this information problem.

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And many of the specific technologies
that we need to do that

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have become better and cheaper
over the recent years,

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and are now ready to be used at scale.

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So, over the past two years,

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my team and I have been working

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with one of the world's largest
conservation organizations, WWF,

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and we've founded
a company called OpenSC,

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where SC stands for supply chain.

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And we believe that by using technology

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we can help to create

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transparency and traceability
in supply chains,

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and through that,
help to completely revolutionize

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the way that we buy
and also produce products as humans.

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Now, some of this is going to sound
a little bit like science fiction,

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but it's already happening.

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Let me explain.

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So, in order to solve
this information problem,

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we need to do three things:

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Verify, trace and share.

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Verify specific sustainability

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and ethical production claims

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in a data-based and automated way.

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Then trace those
individual physical products

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throughout their supply chains,

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and finally, share
that information with consumers

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in a way that truly gives them a choice,

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and lets them make consumption decisions

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that are more aligned with their values.

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I'm going to use a real product,

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and a supply chain where we've made
all of this a reality already.

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A Patagonian toothfish,

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or Chilean sea bass,
as it's called in the US.

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Number one, verify.

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Verify how something is produced.

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But not just by saying,
"Trust me, this is good,

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trust me, we've done
all the right things,"

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but by producing evidence
for that individual physical product,

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and the way it was produced.

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By producing evidence

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for a specific sustainability
or ethical production claim.

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So for example, in the case of the fish,

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has this fish been caught in an area
where there's enough of them

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so that it's sustainable
to catch it there,

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and not in a marine protected area?

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So what we're doing here

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is we're taking almost real-time
GPS data from the ship,

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the ship that's fishing,

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and that tells us where the ship is,

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and where it's going at what speed.

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And we can then combine that
with other types of data,

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like, for example,
how deep the sea floor is.

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And combining all of this information,

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our machine-learning algorithms
can then verify in an automated way

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whether the ship is only fishing
where it's supposed to, or not.

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And as sensors become cheaper,

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we can put them in more places.

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And that means we can capture more data,

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and combining that
with advancements in data science,

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it means that we can now verify

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specific sustainability
and ethical production claims

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in an automated, real-time,
and ongoing manner.

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And that really lays the basis
for this information revolution.

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So, number two, trace.

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Trace those individual physical products

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so that we can truly say

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that the claim that we've verified
about a certain product

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actually belongs
to that individual product,

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that we as consumers
have right in front of us.

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Because, without
that level of traceability,

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all that we've really
verified in the first place

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is that somebody, somewhere, at some point

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caught a fish in a sustainable way

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or didn't harm the employee
when asking them to produce a T-shirt,

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or didn't use pesticides when growing
a vegetable that didn't actually need it.

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Only if I give a product
an identity from the start

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and then trace it
throughout the whole supply chain,

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can this claim and the value
that's been created

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by producing it in the right way

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truly stay with it.

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Now, I've talked about cheaper sensors.

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There are many other
technological developments

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that make all of this much more possible
today than every before.

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For example, the falling costs of tags.

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You give a product a name,

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a serial number, an identity,

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the tag is its passport.

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What you can see here
is a toothfish being caught.

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This is what's called a long line fishery,

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so the fish are coming up
onto the boat on individual hooks.

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And as soon as the fish is on board,

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it is killed, and then after that,

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we insert a small tag
into the fish's flesh.

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And in that tag, there is an RFID chip
with a unique serial number,

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and that tag follows the fish
throughout the whole supply chain,

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and makes it really easy
to sense its presence

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at any port, on any truck
or in any processing plant.

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But consumers can't really read RFID tags.

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And so, when it comes to filleting
and packaging the fish,

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we read the RFID tag and then remove it.

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And then we add a unique QR code
to the packaging of the fish.

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And that QR code then points back
to the same information

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that we've verified about the fish
in the first place.

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And so, depending on the type
of product that we're working with,

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we may use QR codes, bar codes, RFID tags

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or other tag technologies.

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But there are also technologies

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that are at the brink
of large-scale breakthrough,

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that make tags themselves obsolete.

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Like, for example,

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analyzing a product for trace elements,

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that can then tell you quite accurately
where it is actually from.

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Then there's blockchain.

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A decentralized technology
can act as a catalyst for this revolution.

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Because it can help mitigate
some of the trust issues

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that are inherent
to giving people information,

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and then asking them
to change their consumption behavior

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because of that information.

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And so, we use blockchain technology

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where it adds value to what we're doing.

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But importantly,

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we don't let the limitations
that this technology still has today,

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like, for example,
with regards to scaling,

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we don't let that stand in our way.

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And that brings us to the third point.

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Share.

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How to share the information
that we've verified and tracked

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about where a product is from,
how it was produced,

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and how it got to where it is?

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How to share this information

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is really different
from product to product.

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And different from where you buy it.

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You behave differently
in those situations.

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You are stressed and time-poor
in the supermarket.

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Or with short attention span over dinner,

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because your date is so cute.

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Or you are critical and inquisitive

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when researching
for a larger purchase online.

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And so for our fish,

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we've developed a digital experience

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that works when buying the fish
in a freezer in a fish specialty store,

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and that gives you all of the information
about the fish and its journey.

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But we also worked with a restaurant

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and developed a different
digital experience

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that only summarizes the key facts
about the fish and its journey,

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and works better in a dinner setting,

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and hopefully, there
doesn't annoy your date too much.

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Now, that brings us full circle.

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We've verified that the fish was caught

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in an area where
it's sustainable to do so.

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We've then traced it throughout
the entire supply chain

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to maintain its identity and all
the information that's attached to it.

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And then, we've shared
that information with consumers

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in a way that gives them a choice

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and lets them make consumption decisions

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that are more in line with their values.

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Now, for this fish example,
this is already rolled out at scale.

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This season,

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the entire fleet of the world's largest
toothfish fishing company,

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Austral Fisheries,

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is tagging every single fish
that they catch

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and that ends up in their premium
branded "Glacier 51" product.

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And you can already buy this fish.

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And with it, you can have all
of the information I talked about today

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and much more,

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attached to each individual fish
or portion of the fish that you may buy.

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But this is not a fish or seafood thing.

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We're working on many,
many different commodities and products

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and their supply chains across the globe.

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From dairy to fruit and vegetables,

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to non-food products made out of wood.

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As a consumer, all of this
may sound like a huge burden.

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Because you don't have time
to look at all of this information

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every time you buy something.

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And I don't expect you to,

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because you'll have help with that.

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In the future, we'll leave the decision
of which specific product to buy

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increasingly up to machines.

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An algorithm will know enough about you

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to make those decisions for you,
so you don't have to.

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And maybe it will even do
a better job at it.

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In a recent study, 85 percent of those

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buying a product
through a virtual assistant

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said that they, on occasion,

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actually went with the top
product recommendation

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of that virtual assistant,

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rather than the specific product or brand

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that they set out
to buy in the first place.

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You just say you need toilet paper,

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it's then an algorithm that decides
which brand, price point,

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or whether you go with recycled or not.

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Well, nowadays this is usually based
on what you bought in the past,

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or whoever pays the most to the company
behind the virtual assistant.

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But why shouldn't that be also
based on your values?

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Knowing that you want
to buy planet-friendly

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and knowing whether and how much
you're willing and able to pay for that.

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Now, that will make it easy and seamless,

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but still based
on granular effects and data

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to choose the right product.

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Not by necessarily doing it yourself,

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but by asking an algorithm

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that knows how much you care
about this planet.

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Not by necessarily doing it yourself,

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but by asking an algorithm

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that is never time-poor or distracted,

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or with short attention span
because of the cute date,

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and that knows how much
you care about this planet

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and the people living on it,

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by asking that algorithm to look
at all of that information for you

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and to decide for you.

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If we have reliable
and trustworthy information like that

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and the right systems that make use of it,

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consumers will support those
who are doing the right thing

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by producing products
in a sustainable and ethical way.

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They will support them every time

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by choosing their good over others.

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And that means that goods,
producers and processors and retailers

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will get rewarded.

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And bad actors will be forced
to adjust their practices,

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or get out of business.

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And we need that.

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If we want to continue to live together
on this beautiful planet,

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we really need it.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)