Tech giant Meta is being sued by content moderators in Kenya, again. On Monday, 43 content moderators filed a lawsuit accusing Facebook’s parent company and two subcontractors, Sama and Majorel of ‘unlawful redundancy’ and discriminatory hiring practices. Meta had contracted Kenya-based firm Sama to moderate Facebook content in eastern and southern Africa. However, Sama closed its content moderation arm in January and announced it would be laying off 260 content moderators when its contract with Meta ends on March 31. The suit claims that redundancy notices were not issued and that Meta and Sama
Google for Startups is accepting applications for its Black Founders Funds in the US, Europe, Africa, and Brazil, and its Latino Founders Fund in the US. This year also marks the first time Google for Startups has opened the US funds to the public. In previous years, Google reportedly selected US businesses solely through referrals. Less than 0.5% of funding goes to Black-led startups, even though 77% of them are revenue-generating and create an average of 5.4 jobs each. First announced in June 2020, the Black Founders Fund was launched as
Twin sisters, Masego and Matlhogonolo Mphahlele, are the brains behind new digital X-Ray glasses aimed at improving the healthcare backlog in South Africa. After taking a close friend who sustained an injury to the hospital, the Mphahlele sisters devised an idea to create a product to make getting a scan 10x easier. At that moment, the X-Ray Glasses project was born. The powerful pair came together to design a product that would allow medical practitioners to modernize how they carry out scans. Additionally, the twins are also focusing on creating another
The Science for Africa Foundation (SFA Foundation) has partnered with the African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP) to help Africa’s biodiversity hotspots. AfricaBP is a pan-African platform created in 2019 to help generate, analyze, and deploy genomics-based technology to improve African biodiversity and agriculture. SFA Foundation is a pan-Africa, non-profit, and public charity organization supporting, strengthening, and promoting science and innovation in Africa. Like AfricaBP, the organization works to promote science and innovation in Africa. Africa is one of many regions currently experiencing an unprecedented loss of its biodiversity due to human overexploitation. “Without our biodiversity, we
25-year-old inventor, Roy Allela, is using his passion for modern technology to change lives – literally. The tech enthusiast and data science tutor at Oxford University has invented smart gloves called Sign-IO to make communicating with the deaf community effortless. Despite over 300 sign languages being spoken by 70 million people worldwide, only a tiny proportion of people worldwide understand them. This lack of understanding has created a barrier between the deaf community and the rest of the world. Allela was inspired to create the gloves after experiencing first-hand how
Fintech companies in Nigeria are rapidly growing. In Q1 last year, funding for African startups hit a new record, with approximately 89% of all funding allocated to fintech startups in the region. Nigeria is one of many African countries working to make financial services accessible to everyone. As smartphone users grow and digital IDs become the norm – all eyes are on fintech startups to pave the way for financial inclusion in Nigeria. Nigeria’s mission to achieve financial inclusion A quick Google search will tell you that there are at least 150 fintech
A TIME investigation has exposed the horrendous conditions many Kenyan workers had been subject to while working under OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. OpenAI’s toxic working conditions Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in OpenAI, alongside the recent announcement of the platform’s $29 billion valuation, has sparked speculation. According to a recent TIME investigation, Kenyan workers hired to moderate the platform’s content had been left ‘mentally scarred’ from the harsh working conditions they were exposed to. ChatGPT had reportedly been prone to blurting out violent, sexist, and racist remarks due to being trained
South African startup Carry1st has raised $27 million in latest funding round to tap into the gaming industry in Africa. Carry1st’s funding round The funding round, led by gaming-focused VC firm BITKRFT Ventures, also included VC Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), TTV Capital, Lateral Capital, Alumni Ventures, and Kepple Ventures. The investment will help Carry1st create a steady financial infrastructure to prepare for Africa’s fast-paced gaming space. “We’re delighted to partner with BITKRAFT, one of the world’s top gaming VC firms, alongside a16z and other existing investors as we continue on our
Nigerian filmmaker and artist Malik Afegbua is challenging the misconceptions around African beauty, especially within the older generation. Artificial Intelligence has grown to become a trendy part of internet culture today. Despite being a controversial tech tool, one scroll through your internet feed will show you how many people are gearing toward an AI world. Malik Afegbua’s fashion show which displayed photos of elegant old-fashioned seniors in the chicest African attire, took the internet by storm. The series of images, called Fashion Show for Seniors, has garnered over 100,000
Content moderation on social media has taken a turn for the worse. Meta has announced that their leading subcontractor for content moderation in Africa, Sama, has officially closed. The third-party contractor, contracted by the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, has decided to move away from policing harmful content, resulting in several employees without work permits. Following the announcement, 200 employees from the moderation hub in Kenya – representing approximately 3% of the team – will be let go. The news announced on Tuesday, comes months after Meta was sued in East
