The Tech Jawn: Black Tech Enthusiasts Covering The Week's Tech News And How Tech Affects Black Culture

A Facebook DEI lead embezzled $4 million, Elon Musk wants DEI initiatives to end, Cox Media Group can listen to ambient sounds through device mics, Black employee group presidents warn of AI harm to underserved communities.

The FDA has approved the first-ever gene editing therapy we talked about in episode 106 that treats sickle cell disease which affects over 100,000 mostly Black Americans in the United States.Rumor has it that Apple’s iMessage will not be classified as a gatekeeper service under the EU’s Digital Markets Act and will not have to become interoperable with other messaging services.Genetic Testing company 23andMe got hacked, lost 6.9 million users' data, and changed its TOS to avoid getting sued.And the usual suspects slow down government-backed EV charging infrastructure here in the U.S.Link to Show Notes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy belated birthday to ChatGPT. OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot that kicked off the AI craze of 2023 officially turned 1 year old on November 30th.Spotify has laid off 17% of its workforce eliminating around 1500 jobs. This is the music streaming company’s third reduction in staff this year.Do we need to worry about NameDrop? All the concerns related to the new contact sharing feature which debuted in iOS 17 may be just a bit overstated.And you might be surprised by just how much data Colleges and Universities collect on their students.Link to Show Notes... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coding My Crown and Dove, creators of an open-source guide for coding Black hair in video games, discuss the importance of representation in gaming. Additionally, the podcast covers topics such as Google deleting old accounts, MacBook Air video editing experience, frustrations with customer service, Open AI's board drama, and the lack of credit for African innovators.

Apple has finally decided to add RCS to the iPhone sometime in 2024, but, the company makes it clear that RCS is not coming to iMessage, thus the blue bubble vs. green bubble bullying will continue.OpenAI fired its CEO, failed at trying to rehire him less than 24 hours later, had most of its employees threaten to leave the company if it didn’t bring him back, and is now trying to rehire him again, all while knowing Microsoft has already offered him and those who to follow him a gig.And, Amazon is offering free AI training to up to 2 million people by 2025. It’s trying to build the AI workforce for tomorrow by training it today.Link to Show Notes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rapper and producer The D.O.C. discusses using AI to release new music, while the podcast covers gene-editing therapy for sickle cell anemia, a wearable AI assistant, banks refunding scammed users, and efforts to regulate digital payment apps.

Electric vehicle sales are actually up year over year but their increased cost compared to the ICE counterparts keeps consumers from adopting them at the rate auto manufacturers thought they would.Elon Musk’s generative AI company X.ai released its LLM Grok this week. The chatbot comes with an X Premium+ account and answers you in a snarky tone.Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are out. Are you going to cop a pair, or, naw?And Click Workers, the people who train AI, are underpaid, underappreciated, and incentivized to “go along with the group” instead of calling it like they see it.Link to Show Notes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cruise’s robotaxi permit was immediately suspended in San Francisco after the company failed to report the whole story about a pedestrian-involved accident and two days later the company suspended service everywhere.Facebook and Instagram launched ad-free premium subscriptions in Europe.  And X, formerly Twitter, launched Basic and Premium+ subscriptions here in the U.S.Multiple states are suing Meta because of beauty filters’ effects on children’s development.And,  Dr. Joy Buolamwini, the Biden Administration, and the United Nations all feel some type of way about AI, its safeguards, and its proliferation.Link to Show Notes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A jury awards a female Google Cloud executive $1.1 million because the company gave higher pay to less-experienced male cohorts and later denied her promotions in retaliation for complaining about it.On the heels of the password-sharing crackdown and a 70% increase in ad-supported tiers, Netflix has a better-than-expected Q3.  The company is still hiking subscription prices though.Google is rolling out RSS to YouTube and YouTube Music, but, it isn’t quite what many podcasters expected.And, could former Fugees member Pras be granted an appeal because his former lawyer used A.I. to write closing arguments in his federal court case?Link to Show Notes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast episode covers topics like passkeys as a passwordless authentication technology, a proposed bill in New York regarding 3D printer purchases, the European Union's response to misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war, and a spotlight on Trisha Prabhu's success in the business world.