After experiencing a close call with a tornado in 2015, Robert Washington founded Shelter Share, a mobile app helping Oklahoma residents find nearby shelters during natural disasters. Shelter Share Oklahoma has had over 800 tornadoes, but Oklahoma City only has 26 shelters per 1500 residents, with no public shelters available. Shelter Share, founded in 2022 by Robert Washington, is a mobile app that helps users locate nearby shelters during natural disasters. Washington experienced a close call with a tornado in 2015. He was in a two-story apartment building, holding his newborn
Google’s Product Inclusion and Equity Team, led by Dominique Mungin, is working to ensure that the next generation of AI-driven image generation and recognition technologies does not perpetuate societal biases. Mungin, who has been at Google for 13 years, has worked on projects like the Monk Skin Tone Scale and Google’s Real Tone Tech. Now, her team has collaborated with Tonl, a stock photography company, to supply more diverse imagery for training machine learning models. In an interview with Tech Brew, Mungin admitted that skin tone challenges persist. An entire
A new state report has advised New York schools to be cautious when using facial recognition and other identifying technology. Some risks outlined in the report include biometric data breaches, mistaken identification through facial recognition flaws, and students being turned away from school because of technological errors. The report was based on a survey sent to every school administrator in the state and other interested parties. It was also open to the public, teachers, parents and students. The use of facial recognition in schools In January 2020, Lockport City School District
Libbie Health, an AI-powered app that gives women of color tools to reduce anxiety, was announced the winner of this year’s Make It in Brooklyn pitch contest. Libbie Health The app was founded by behavioral health coach Colette Ellis in 2022 to address racial and cultural disparities in mental health care. It also aims to create positive health outcomes for women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and marginalized leaders. Ellis was trained in Emotional-Freedom Technique (EFT) tapping in 2013 and began building it into her client work. “If you’ve ever been in a situation where you smelled
An AI image creator, Playground AI, gave an Asian MIT graduate blue eyes and lighter skin when she asked it to turn her photo into a professional LinkedIn headshot. Rona Wang, who had majored in computer science at MIT, took to Twitter to share her surprise, adding to online debates about racial biases in generative AI. What happened? The Boston Globe reported that Wang uploaded an image of herself smiling and wearing a red MIT shirt to the platform, asking it to turn the image into a “professional” LinkedIn profile
GRAMMY Award-winning rapper Lupe Fiasco has collaborated with Google Lab Sessions to develop an experimental AI tool, TextFX. TextFX is an AI-powered tool for rappers, writers, and wordsmiths to enhance their use of lyrical and linguistic techniques. TextFX A play on the acronym for sound effects (SFX), TextFXis an experimental demonstrating how generative language technologies can empower the creativity and workflows of artists and creators. It was created in collaboration with Lupe Fiasco who drew inspiration from the lyrical and linguistic techniques he developed throughout his career. He frequently tinkers
Leading global aerospace company Boeing is investing in scholarships in pilot training to grow and diversify talent. Boeing develops, manufactures, and services commercial airplanes, defence products, and space systems for customers in more than 150 countries. The company reports that since 2019, it has invested over $8.5 million to bring pilot training programs to underrepresented populations in communities across the United States. Investing Nearly $1M In Scholarships Boeing is investing $950,000 in scholarships for pilot training to grow and diversify the talent required to meet significant long-term demand for commercial
Pryce Adade Yebesi is the 23-year-old co-founder and COO of Utopia Labs, a startup on a mission to bridge the gap between crypto and traditional payment systems, and ultimately, create a new internet economy. Recently, Utopia Labs raised an impressive $23 million, making Yebesi one of the youngest Black founders to achieve such a milestone. Driving the adoption of crypto payments Utopia Labs’ founders Pryce Adade Yebesi, Kaito Cunningham, Jason Chong, and Alexander Wu first met on Discord and Twitter. The quad was brought together by an interest in Decentralized
Fintech Stratyfy has announced a partnership with Beneficial State Foundation to decrease racial disparities in lending. The Partnership Stratyfy offers accurate, dynamic, and equitable credit underwriting decisions with machine learning solutions, working with institutions to implement AI. Their mission is to accelerate financial inclusion for people and mitigate risk for financial institutions. They address operations such as automated credit risk assessment, fraud detection, bias mitigation, and other tasks without new risks. The Beneficial State Foundation is a team of equity champions who aim to advance financial justice and impactful systematic
Virgin Galactic’s spaceflight “Galactic 02” will fly three passengers to space, including the first Caribbean astronauts, mother-daughter duo Keisha Schahaff, 46, and Anastatia Mayers, 18. Galactic 02 Virgin Galactic is an aerospace and space travel company pioneering human spaceflight for private individuals and researchers with its advanced air and space vehicles. Its seventh spaceflight, and second commercial spaceflight, Galactic 02, will fly three private passengers to space, Jon Goodwin, Keisha Schahaff, and Anastasia Mayers. Mother-daughter duo Schahaff and Mayers won seats in a draw that raised funds for the non-profit
