Randal Quran Reid spent almost a week in jail after Louisiana police wrongly identified him using facial recognition software. He has now filed a lawsuit against them. What Happened? Reid, 28, was driving to his mother’s house for Thanksgiving when local police pulled him over and arrested him. They had used facial recognition software, and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office (JPSO) identified him as a suspect in a spate of thefts in Louisiana. Reid, however, had never set foot in Louisiana and was unaware of what Jefferson Parish was. There
Google and Howard University have announced a new partnership, Project Elevate Black Voices, to build a high-quality African-American English (AAE) speech dataset. The new partnership will allow Howard University to share the dataset with those looking to improve speech technology while establishing a framework for responsible data collection, ensuring the data benefits Black communities. Google has confirmed that the university will retain ownership of the dataset and licensing. Automatic Speech Recognition and Black People Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology allows humans to use their voices to speak with a computer
Two Black TikTok workers have formed a complaint to the US Government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) about racism and discrimination they faced at work. Nnete Matima and Joel Carter have accused TikTok’s parent company of racism and retaliation, alleging ByteDance Ltd. terminated their contracts after they spoke up about the discrimination. Nnete Matima Matima told CNN she was attracted to work at TikTok because the social media platform was “built upon Black culture” and the work of Black creators. After seeing TikTok’s pledge of support for the Black community
Big Tech companies are being probed about the treatment of their “ghost workers” by Democratic lawmakers. Ghost work refers to the undervalued, underpaid, and undersupported human labor utilized to develop and maintain the automation of websites and apps. This work is often outsourced, hidden, or rendered invisible by the tech companies who request it. With the rise of generative AI, this work often includes training and improving algorithms. According to Just Tech, ghost workers are usually vulnerable people from Asia, Latin America and Africa who are being paid less than
Black and Hispanic employees receive lower-quality feedback on their job performance, leading to poor retention, a new study has found. For the second year in a row, Textio’s annual Language Bias in Performance Feedback report found that employees receive personality feedback based on race and gender stereotypes. Last year’s findings showed that women, Black and Hispanic people, and those over 40 systematically received lower-quality and biased feedback at work. This year, the study investigated the connection between feedback quality and employee retention and found a clear link between the two.
Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong, the founder of 54gene, has started a new company, Syndicate Bio. The rise and fall of 54gene In 2019, Ene-Obong founded 54gene, a Nigerian health and biotech startup, to address the gap in the genomics market. At the height of the pandemic, the organization seized the opportunity to earn more money by transforming its lab into a COVID testing center. But, as Covid cases reduced and fewer people carried out tests, many of the staff 54gene recruited had to be let go. The organization was forced to
A Google Technical Program Manager, Terysa Ridgeway, is launching Alilo the Explorer, an educational toy robot that teaches children how to code. Meet Terysa Ridgeway Ridgeway has been a Tech Program Manager at Google for almost two years. She is also the author of The Terysa Solves It book series that introduces young girls to Computer Science. The child of two teachers, Ridgeway’s fascination with technology began early. One day, her mother brought home a computer, and Ridgeway was intrigued by the data processor that allowed the keyboard’s letters to
Rajiv Ayyangar, the co-founder and CEO of Tandem, has been announced as the new CEO of Product Hunt. Product Hunt is an online community platform founded by Ryan Hoover in 2023 for makers to launch their products and consumers to find the latest and greatest in tech. The platform attracts product-loving enthusiasts who come together to share the latest apps, websites, hardware projects, and tech creations. “Product Hunt changed my life,” Ayyangar announced on Twitter. “Now I’m stepping in as CEO.” Launching on Product Hunt Founders use Product Hunt to
San Francisco-based startup Writer Inc., a generative AI platform for corporate content, has raised $100 million. Using AI to write content Writer is a generative AI startup that uses its large language models (LLMS) to let enterprises and their employees write and edit content. This may include emails, documents, and ads adhering to a company’s editorial guidelines. With the name “Writer”, the startup only produces text, removing the operation of visual content such as images and videos. Founders May Habib from Lebanon and Wassem Alshikh from Syria used their personal
Earlier this month, a leaked Google spreadsheet revealed that Black employees earn less than white colleagues, leaving questions about why this is happening and how things can change. We spoke to Black former Google employees about their experiences of negotiating their employment contracts at the tech giant and their insights. What did the spreadsheet reveal? The leaked Google spreadsheet, encompassing data from over 12,000 US employees in 2022, revealed that Black employees had an average salary of $ 147,000. By contrast, white employees earned $170,000 on average. White employees also
