Social media giant Facebook is on a mission to create some of the most innovative forms of technology in society today. The platform recently announced the launch of its new AI translator, No Language Left Behind (NLLB-200), the first multilingual machine that can translate up to 200 languages without relying on English data. The NLLB-200 aims to help people better connect in society today by eliminating the language barrier. Meta’s AI model uses one of the world’s fastest AI supercomputers and is already used to translate content on Facebook and Wikipedia.
Earlier this year, on February 13th, Sporting Lagos FC played its first-ever football match, which ended in a draw. The club, which currently plays in the Nigerian National League, the country’s second tier, is the brainchild of Shola Akinlade, co-founder and CEO of financial technology company Paystack, which he says was acquired for more than $200 million in 2020 by Irish American financial services company Stripe. Akinlade says he intends for Sporting Lagos to be a platform for community development and social change. But managing a football club in Nigeria is often
Joelle Mbatchou, one of a few dozen people of color to make MIT’s Innovators Under 35 list this year, has done what some may describe as exceptional work over the years in the AI space. The 32-year-old has developed a machine-learning model called Regenie that makes analyzing the data quicker and cheaper while reducing the amount of computing power required. The method could allow researchers to identify genetic variants associated with specific diseases more easily. “With the increasing number of collaborations being established across large biobanks, many of them involving individuals
Sexual harassment, bullying, and racist stereotyping are common in the technology industry, creating a culture that drives underrepresented employees out of their jobs. This is something we’ve known for a while due to the extensive studies and investigations. A 2017 survey of more than 2,000 people who left tech jobs in the last three years found that 1 in 10 women in tech experience unwanted sexual attention, and nearly 1 in 4 people of color face stereotyping. The same year the study was published, Qichen Zhang quit her job at
Danish investment firm, Unconventional Ventures (UV), recently announced the launch of their new fund of €30 million (approx. $30.5 million) to support underrepresented founders across Europe. The fund was launched by UV to get more money into the pockets of “unconventional founders,” will work to address the lack of diversity in Europe’s start-up ecosystem. Nora Bavey, Tea Messel, and Bradley Leimer co-founded UV in 2017 with the aim of shaking up Europe’s VC space for good. The team, which has formed an extensive pool of diverse investors and advisors, will
Banking platform BMO recently announced its partnership with the Black Professionals in Tech Network (BPTN), North America’s largest community of Black tech and business professionals. The partnership will focus on supporting and providing opportunities for Black professionals in the financial services industry. It will also help the banking platform increase representation of Black colleagues by bridging the network gap. BMO’s recent announcement with BPTN falls under their Zero Barriers to Inclusion Strategy, highlighting its critical goals for the year. The Inclusion Strategy includes reaching new hiring targets and providing access
The cryptocurrency market has drastically fallen over the years, with the market decreasing in value by more than $1 trillion. The recent downfalls have shaken the entire cryptocurrency market and resulted in many Black investors experiencing severe losses. One of the most popular cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, fell below $20,000 for the first time in 2020 and has been steadily declining by more than 70%. Over the past seven months, its value has shrunk more than ever, consequently impacting millions of investors in the cryptocurrency market. According to the Financial Times, 25%
Timbaland and Swizz Beats co-founded Verzuz during the peak of the first pandemic. The platform has provided millions of viewers with entertainment from the comfort of their homes. The show, which sparked success after hosting some exciting head-to-head music battles, was acquired by Triller in 2021. The deal included Swizz Beats and Timbaland directing a portion of their equity stake to 43 artists who have made appearances on the platform. The agreement also involved the award-winning producers overseeing Triller’s music strategy. Many speculated the video app acquiring Verzuz would impact
Black-founded startups recently saw record amounts of investment, with quarterly funding commitments nearing or even topping $1 billion. But according to new data from Crunchbase, venture capital funding has dropped significantly in the second quarter of 2022, down to just $324 million. So far in 2022, only 100 U.S. startups with a Black founder have received funding, with $100 million invested in seed rounds, $591 million in early-stage rounds, and approximately $876 million in later-stage rounds. Startups with at least one Black founder received 1.9% of deal counts and 1.2% of
According to Zion Market Research, the digital mental health market was valued at $1.4 billion (£1.1billion) in 2017 and is projected to reach $4.6 billion in 2026. Still, it has often been claimed that many of these apps do not cater to the specific challenges that Black, Indigenous, and people of color face. That’s why we’ve dug a bit deeper to find the apps that put inclusion and diversity at the forefront of their mission and have a mission to ensure everyone gets support. Therapy for Black Girls Therapy for
