Wicked Saints, a Black woman-led video game studio, has secured $3.5 million in seed funding. The funding round, co-led by Riot Games and Oregon Venture Fund, brings the studio’s total funding to $4.6 million Jessica Murrey, Wicked Saints’ founder and CEO, also joins the small group of Black women founders who have raised over $1 million. Learning Real-World Skills Through Gaming World Reborn is Gen Z’s take on Pokémon Go, offering a unique blend of storytelling, real-world activism, and location-based play. The studio’s flagship game, “World Reborn,” merges the digital
Editi Effiòng’s Nollywood action-thriller, The Black Book, has claimed the top spot worldwide on Netflix after leaders in Nigeria’s fintech startup space came together to fund the film. The Black Book The Black Book claimed the top spot worldwide just five days after its debut on Netflix, also making it the first ever number-one African film on Netflix. Vanguard reported that from September 18 to 24, the film accumulated 5.6 million views and 11.6 million watch hours. The movie, which traces the story of a mourning father seeking justice following
Corner is a new social media app that turns your memories into recommendations you can share with friends with a personalized social map. The brainchild of Eliza Wu and Jake Xia, Corner aims to move away from the negativity and complaints of traditional review platforms and focus on sharing memorable experiences. Meet the co-founders Wu has an impressive background with a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Southern California and worked as an Investment Intern during her time there. She became an investment associate at JPMorgan for two years before
Black 10-year-old Ava Simmons has partnered with retailers across the US and Canada to launch her Team Genius Squad STEM toy line. Team Genius Squad Team Genius Squad is a movement and an aspiring brand created by 10-year-old Ava, also known as the STEM Princess. Their mission is to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) awareness, encouraging individuals to believe in themselves, to identify their uniqueness, and to pursue their goals. They design STEM-inspired products such as Experiment Lab Kits, Jewelry, Lip Gloss, Puzzles and Apparel whilst developing fun
An American Association of Advertising Agencies (The 4A’s) report has found unsolved issues in the advertising industry. A step in the wrong direction for diversity While 2021 witnessed a surge in diversity and inclusion efforts, momentum seemingly dwindled in 2022. At the time, numerous corporations embraced more diverse hiring practices and over 200 tech firms committed to change. However, over the last year, these efforts have begun to decrease, including the media industry losing four Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) leaders in two weeks. Furthermore, the 4A’s report indicated a
Kenyan President William Ruto announced that offensive or inappropriate content will be removed from TikTok after a virtual meeting with TikTok’s CEO. TikTok and the Kenyan Government According to the Reuters Institue Digital News Report 2023, Kenya has the highest TikTok usage rate worldwide, with 54% of users in the country using the app for general purposes and 29% for news. During the virtual call with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, it was agreed that TikTok will collaborate with the Kenyan government to review and monitor its content. The collab
Cardi B has reportedly threatened to sue an X – formerly known as Twitter – user who shared fake AI-generated imagery and voice notes of Offset having an affair. What Happened? On Sunday, an X user, @ayywalker, shared what was allegedly evidence that Offset had cheated on Cardi B. The post featured a supposed photo of Offset and a voice memo of a man trying to set up a meeting with a woman. The user captioned the post, saying, “Offset has allegedly cheated on Cardi B once again. How embarrassing.” Cardi
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
Preston Mutanga is the 14-year-old animator that created the Lego Spider-Man segment from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. 14-year-old animator Minnesota native Mutanga created his first video at the age of nine after he was introduced to Blender, a computer graphics 3D software, by his father. Minnesota native Mutanga would make stop-motion Lego videos on his YouTube page for fun. However, they were that good they caught the attention of Sony Pictures Animation’s team. The 14-year-old in Milton was asked to animate a scene in the 2018’s Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse sequel,
Buffalo shooting survivors have filed two lawsuits claiming that YouTube, Reddit and a body armor manufacturer enabled the gunman to kill 10 Black people in a racist attack. The two lawsuits are the latest attempts to hold social media companies accountable for their role in the mass murders. The Buffalo Shooting The 2022 Buffalo mass shooting has sparked a legal battle to hold social media companies responsible for their platforms’ role in radicalization. Earlier this year, two lawsuits were launched by the victims’ loved ones, seeking accountability from tech giants such as
