In February, Prestige magazine published a list of the top-selling pieces of crypto-art to date, with all entries sharing some common traits – they were all men and all white. And when you look into the news reports of those who’re supposedly ‘killing it’ in the NFT or crypto space most of them look the same. But here at POCIT – we’re all about shining a light on the communities that are sometimes cast to the side and forgotten even when they’re making a considerable impact. Before we begin – for
You may have stumbled upon memes on Twitter where users are snubbing the American streaming platform – Netflix. Well – it’s because it’s just been announced that the tech giant is laying off approximately 150 employees across the company, according to an internal memo sent Tuesday. The layoffs represent 2 percent of the streamer’s total workforce, with most of the cuts happening in the United States. Netflix is also making changes to its animation division, resulting in 70 roles being cut off in that unit and reducing contractor roles in
TW: The following report may be triggering as it details updates on the main suspect of the Buffalo attack. The self-described white supremacist gunman who killed 10 people, all of them Black, at a Buffalo supermarket on Saturday had mounted a GoPro camera to his helmet. He planned to stream his assault live on Twitch, the video game streaming platform used by another shooter in 2019 who killed two people at a synagogue in Halle, Germany. Like others before him, Payton Gendron, 18, the main suspect behind the Buffalo attack, previously outlined his plan
Senior officials at Luke Air Force Base are investigating an incident where a member of the crew allegedly told another that he was not being considered for a position because “the Air Force is looking for somebody of white complexion.” This is according to a text exchange shared on the popular Facebook page Air Force amn/snco/nco. “We won’t be sending your name up for [redacted] at the squadron,” a White technical sergeant allegedly texted a Black senior airman at the 56th Equipment Maintenance Squadron on Wednesday. When he asked for a
There’s a billboard in Detroit promoting The Lip Bar, a business Melissa Butler launched 10 years ago: “Shark Tank told me to quit. 10 years and 2 million units sold. Thanks, Mr. Wonderful.” That moment on the show when “Mr. Wonderful,” whose real name is Kevin O’Leary, and other investors harshly rejected Butler’s products didn’t stop her because she knew the investors were not the customers she was targeting. She has previously told media that she knew her customer base and she was determined to press forward. The Lip Bar celebrated its 10th year of operation with
First National Bank has announced that it’s making a $2.5 million equity commitment to Black Tech Nation Ventures, a majority Black-owned VC fund based in Pittsburgh, which provides funding and resources for Black-led technology startups and firms with diverse founders. The investment is part of FNB’s broader commitment to promoting economic equality. Launched in 2021, the BTN venture fund is more than halfway to its initial $50 million fundraising goal. The VC intends to build a portfolio of 20 to 30 early-stage tech companies that have diverse founding teams and focus on
Labor leader and fired Amazon worker Chris Smalls, who recently revealed that workers at dozens of Amazon facilities have contacted him because they need support, said he was disheartened by Jeff Bezos’s inaction. On The Breakfast Club this morning, Smalls, who has garnered widespread support from celebrities and workers after he was let go by the firm, spoke about the conditions Amazon workers worked in during the Covid pandemic. He claimed that when he worked as a supervisor for the firm – his team didn’t have any PPE or cleaning
Timnit Gebru, a widely respected leader in AI ethics research, is known for co-authoring a groundbreaking paper that showed facial recognition to be less accurate at identifying women and people of color, which means its use can end up discriminating against them. Gebru, who recently founded her own firm, an independent artificial intelligence research institute, was awarded $3.7 million in funding after she was fired by Google. And now she’s been cited as a case study by Harvard Business School’s research team in a new paper that details her experiences being ‘silenced’ by
Nzambi Matee, a 30-year-old who quit her job in oil and gas to work on her passion full-time, has created a lightweight and low-cost building material that is made of recycled plastic with sand to make bricks that are stronger than concrete material. Every day her enterprise, Gjenge Makers, churns out 1,500 bricks made from industrial and household plastic that otherwise would be dumped in the city’s overflowing garbage heaps. In 2021, the team recycled 50 tonnes of plastic but Matee has ambitions to double that amount this year as
Back in April 2021, João Gualberto, the district mayor of Mata de São João, held an in-person auction letting Brazilian technology companies bid for a contract to supply facial recognition technology for the public school system. The $162,000 tender was won by PontoiD, and in July that year, two public schools — João Pereira Vasconcelos and Celia Goulart de Freitas — began secretly rolling out the facial recognition system, without informing parents or students in advance, according to research by Rest Of World. Students were registered on the system, which
