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Google

The Google for Startups Founders Fund is back for the fifth year and is funding 20 Black and Latine AI companies in the US. The fund first launched as part of Google’s $175 million commitment towards racial equity and to date has deployed more than $50 million dollars to more than 570 Black and Latine founders around the world. Google For Startups Founders Fund & AI As AI developments are on the rise, this year, Google has funded 20 US-based companies that are pushing the boundaries in AI. The companies

Terysa Ridgeway, a Tech Program Manager at Google and author of the “Terysa Solves It” book series has launched a new YouTube series aimed at introducing young children to the world of coding.  Ridgeway actively engages in educational programs focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).  She recently authored a children’s book, “Think Like A Computer,” and created a toy robot, Alilo the Explorer, designed to teach coding to children as young as three. Ridgeway’s new YouTube series continues her commitment to making coding accessible and fun for the

Google has announced the construction of Umoja, the first-ever fiber optic cable to link Africa with Australia directly.  This initiative, named after the Swahili word for “unity,” aims to boost the reliability and reach of digital infrastructure across the continents. The Umoja cable The Umoja cable will begin in Kenya and traverse Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, including the Google Cloud region, before crossing the Indian Ocean to Australia.  According to Google’s press release, the terrestrial segment of the route has already been completed in collaboration with Liquid

Google has made an additional investment in Morehouse College, the only historically Black liberal arts institution, with a new Google Annex classroom. Google and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) partnered last year to contribute a $2 million investment in Morehouse College and Hampton University. The universities used the funding to invest in technical infrastructure to support in-class and remote learning. They also aimed to develop curriculum and career support programs for students pursuing careers in the tech industry. The Google Annex Classroom Google has opened a new Google Annex classroom at

More than 200 groups, including civil organizations, researchers, and journalists, have written to major tech company CEOs, urging them to take action to ensure truthful online content and safeguard democratic processes. The letter that went out to the CEOs of Discord, Google, Instagram, Meta, TikTok, X, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit, Snap, Rumble, and Twitch, coincides with upcoming elections in over 60 countries in 2024. The Impact Of Online Discourse On Democracy “Research illustrates that individual users can have an outsized impact on online discourse, which results in real-world harms, such as the rise of extremism and violent attempts to overthrow democratic

Google and Apple are potentially joining forces to integrate Google’s chatbot technology, Gemini, into every iPhone amid controversies surrounding its promotion of diversity. Google’s Gemini The two tech giants are discussing licensing parts of Google’s Gemini bot for the iPhone’s built-in AI tools, such as its Siri assistant. Bloomberg reported that Google’s shares surged 6.6% following the news. The move comes after Gemini was criticized for generating images of historical figures that inaccurately represented their genders and ethnicities. The backlash prompted Google to pause the image generation tool. The potential partnership also raises questions of privacy

Jalon Hall, Google’s only Black Deaf employee, has claimed mistreatment and discrimination at the company and has filed a lawsuit. Hall’s Story As reported by the WIRED, in 2020, Hall, an enthusiastic criminal justice master’s graduate, was surprised to receive a LinkedIn message about a job opportunity at Google. Despite her initial skepticism, the offer was genuine, and Hall was soon hired to join Wolverine, a new in-house team tasked with moderating YouTube videos.  Her journey to this role was untraditional, as her previous job was at a law firm, where she delved

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with major tech giants in a case concerning the alleged use of child labor in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  According to Reuters, in a unanimous 3-0 decision, the court ruled that these companies, including Apple and Tesla, cannot be held liable for their involvement in cobalt sourcing. Cobalt sourcing is critical in producing lithium-ion batteries essential for numerous electronics and electric vehicles. The Lawsuit The lawsuit, brought forward by former child miners and

Google’s latest AI tool, Gemini, designed to create diverse images, has been temporarily stopped after sparking controversy over its depiction of historical figures.  AI Tool Gemini Gemini was made to create realistic images based on users’ descriptions in a similar manner to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Like other models, it is trained not to respond to dangerous or hateful prompts and to introduce diversity into its outputs. However, users reported that Gemini, in its attempt to avoid racial bias, often generated images with historically inaccurate representations of gender and ethnicity. For example,

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