Rothschild backs activist’s AI whistleblower enterprise
Activist investor Richard Bernstein has won backing from Nat Rothschild for an artificial intelligence (AI) venture putting corporate ‘hypocrisy’ under the spotlight.
Bernstein, founder of Crystal Amber, has recently become chief executive of Insig AI, which uses machine learning to interrogate company disclosures. Prominent financier Rothschild has bought a 5pc stake in the company for nearly £1m.
The business helps investors and regulators scour through reams of publicly available disclosures – catching out those guilty of ‘greenwashing’ or other instances of not being straight with the public.
Heavyweights: Richard Bernstein, right, founder of Crystal Amber, has recently become chief exec of Insig AI which financier Nat Rothschild, left, bought a 5% stake in for nearly £1m
‘There seems to be a whole lot of hypocrisy around about people saying we want to be good corporate investors and yet, on the other hand, they won’t bother to do the work to see what’s disclosed,’ said Bernstein.
Greenwashing is the term for when firms make pledges on the environment that are not matched by their actions.
He added that Insig has already identified one FTSE 100 company worth more than £10bn which is ‘crying out for a greenwashing investigation’ and reckons, if this happens, it will wipe £700million to £800million off its value ‘in a minute’.
‘They’re not disclosing what they should be disclosing and what they’ve said is inconsistent,’ Bernstein said. ‘It’s making false claims.’
Bernstein, who owns just less than 20 per cent of Insig AI, said: ‘It’s similar in so far as Crystal Amber is about activism and having change.
‘Here I’ve gone a step further – I’ve decided to be the boss. It’s really all about using machine learning for corporate reporting and standards around governance in particular.’
The aim is to spot companies whose disclosures reveal them to be other than ‘the great and the good’ that some in fact claim to be.
Bernstein added: ‘The idea is to raise the level of disclosure for companies so you’re not getting scandals in the future.’
