Brand new Techish! Hosts Abadesi and Michael dive into: Weaponized incompetence harms DEI Reflections on getting older Companies outsourcing jobs overseas Tips for new B2B founders Listen on Spotify or Apple podcast also. Watch On YouTube
Apple Inc. has appointed Cynthia Bowman as its new Vice President of Inclusion and Diversity. Bowman, a seasoned banking executive, succeeds Barbara Whye, marking the fourth executive to hold this position in recent years. Cynthia Bowman: Bank of America Veteran Cynthia Bowman, who previously served as Chief Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Responsibility Officer at Bank of America Corp., joins Apple following a 17-year tenure with the bank. “We are excited that Cynthia Bowman will serve as Apple’s next Vice President of Inclusion and Diversity,” an Apple spokesperson said in a
Brand new Techish! Hosts Abadesi and Michael dive into: Starbucks and Apple are in their flop era Women on Bumble no longer have to make the first move Bank of America employees to strike following death from overwork The decline of the UK Listen on Spotify or Apple podcast also. Watch On YouTube
This year’s top stories reflect the challenges, opportunities, and dynamic changes in the tech industry and broader society. Unsurprisingly, many of these years’ top stories concern the boom in generative AI, from developing the “BlackGPT” to concerns around the historical and present-day harms and philosophies underpinning AI developments. We’ve also shared stories of Black innovation, Latine entrepreneurship, workplace wins and challenges, collective triumph, and personal tragedy. Here are the ten stories that resonated with you, our POCIT readers, the most this year. 10. Cash App’s Appeal in the Black Community
In a startling revelation, Barbara Furlow-Smiles, previously renowned for her role as a global diversity strategist at Facebook, has pled guilty to wire fraud charges. Her conviction comes after siphoning over $4 million from the tech giant, purportedly to support an extravagant lifestyle across California and Georgia. Furlow-Smiles, who significantly contributed to Facebook’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives between 2017 and mid-2021, orchestrated a complex fraud. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta detailed how she exploited her position to funnel funds through fictitious vendors and bogus charges, culminating in
Apple has agreed to pay $25 million to resolve allegations of illegal discrimination in its hiring and recruitment processes. The Department of Justice (DOJ) accused Apple of violating anti-discrimination laws, specifically related to its permanent labor certification program (PERM), which enables companies to hire foreign workers permanently in the US. The allegations The DOJ investigation found that Apple favored current employees holding temporary visas who sought permanent positions, creating barriers for other applicants. “Apple did not advertise positions Apple sought to fill through the PERM program on its external job
More and more prominent tech figures are voicing concerns about superintelligent AI and risks to the future of humanity. But as leading AI ethicist Timnit Gebru and researcher Émile P Torres point out, these ideologies have deeply racist foundations. TESCREAL “So another “godfather” of AI, Turing Award Winner Yoshua Bengio has decided to FULLY align himself with the #TESCREAL bundle, writing about “rogue AI” and prominently citing people like Nick Bostrom,” tweeted Gebru, founder of the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). TESCREAL, coined by Émile Torres and Gebru, stands for Transhumanism, Extropianism,
Asian American professionals are more likely to join Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) than their colleagues but feel excluded from workplace DEI initiatives, according to new research by AAPI Data and Momentive. Despite their diverse backgrounds, people of Asian, Asian American, or Pacific Islander (AAPI) heritage often encounter similar challenges that hinder their career growth and well-being. To address these concerns, many turn to ERGs as a source of support, connection, and advocacy within their organizations. AAPI Data and Momentive found that 16% of Asian American workers, 18% of Native Hawaiian
Over thirty years ago, Guinean brothers Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry created ADLaM, new alphabet for the Pulaar language of the Fulani people of West Africa. Now, Microsoft 365 has integrated the redesigned alphabet into its global platforms, helping to preserve the language for years to come. Disappearing languages Every three months, a language becomes extinct. happens every three months. As much as 90% of the world’s 6,500 languages are expected to disappear by the end of the century. Although over 40 million people speak it, for most of its history,
In a watershed moment for the global tech industry, more than 150 African content moderators—who have provided moderation services for AI tools used by Facebook, TikTok, and ChatGPT—have voted to unionize, TIME reports. At an event in Nairobi this week, content moderators employed by third-party outsourcing companies voted to establish the first African Content Moderators Union. A long time coming The union’s establishment is the culmination of a process that began in 2019 when former Facebook content moderator Daniel Motaung was fired after attempting to unionize workers at the outsourcing
