The Tech Jawn: Black Tech Enthusiasts Covering The Week's Tech News And How Tech Affects Black Culture

In most of this episode of The Tech Jawn, we’ll be talking to our featured guest, but before we get to the interview we discuss another case of facial recognition misidentifying a person of color leading to their wrongful arrest.

In our interview, we talk with Lamarr Wilson, the unofficial “CEO of Tech Unboxings” and Lifestyle Entertainer and Influencer with over 3 million followers.

Lamarr tells us about his journey to becoming a prolific content creator, how he decided to forgo long-form content for short-form vertical video, and leaves us with tips on how to become a content creator and ultimately get sponsored by brands.

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A DEI lead at Facebook has admitted to embezzling 4 million dollars in a scheme that involved fake expense reports, payments via CashApp, and all kinds of easily “firgureoutable” types of fraud.

Elon Musk has declared that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives need to die and has even equated DEI to being a different type of discrimination.

A Cox Media Group subsidiary claims the company can listen to ambient sound via device microphones and can market to customers based on the data it hears.

And, Black Employee Group presidents at Nvidea warn the CEO that work the company is doing in AI could harm underserved communities...

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The FDA has approved the first-ever gene editing therapy we talked about in episode 106 that treats sickle cell disease which affects over 100,000 mostly Black Americans in the United States.

Rumor has it that Apple’s iMessage will not be classified as a gatekeeper service under the EU’s Digital Markets Act and will not have to become interoperable with other messaging services.

Genetic Testing company 23andMe got hacked, lost 6.9 million users' data, and changed its TOS to avoid getting sued.

And the usual suspects slow down government-backed EV charging infrastructure here in the U.S.

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Happy belated birthday to ChatGPT. OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot that kicked off the AI craze of 2023 officially turned 1 year old on November 30th.

Spotify has laid off 17% of its workforce eliminating around 1500 jobs. This is the music streaming company’s third reduction in staff this year.

Do we need to worry about NameDrop? All the concerns related to the new contact sharing feature which debuted in iOS 17 may be just a bit overstated.

And you might be surprised by just how much data Colleges and Universities collect on their students.

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This is a public service announcement to check your old Google accounts because, starting this week, Google is deleting accounts that have not been accessed in over two years.

Tech Life Steph has made the switch from PC to Mac, but, all is not well as she explains why she is not yet using her new hotness to record episodes of the show.

Coding My Crown and Dove have partnered to launch an open-source guide for coding Black hair in video games.

And, billion-dollar case maker Casetify is being sued by dBrands for jacking its designs, Easter eggs and all, from its Teardown line of cases.

We've got all this, a recap of the OpenAI hot mess from a week ago, and we've got a Spotlight in episode 108 of The Tech Jawn.

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Apple has finally decided to add RCS to the iPhone sometime in 2024, but, the company makes it clear that RCS is not coming to iMessage, thus the blue bubble vs. green bubble bullying will continue.

OpenAI fired its CEO, failed at trying to rehire him less than 24 hours later, had most of its employees threaten to leave the company if it didn’t bring him back, and is now trying to rehire him again, all while knowing Microsoft has already offered him and those who to follow him a gig.

And, Amazon is offering free AI training to up to 2 million people by 2025. It’s trying to build the AI workforce for tomorrow by training it today.

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It looks like the Food and Drug Administration might be ready to approve the first gene-editing therapy, CRISPR, that cured sickle cell anemia symptoms in 97% of trial patients.

Are we ready for the Humane AI Pin? A wearable AI assistant that kind of reminds you of a Star Trek TNG communicator badge. 

Rapper and Producer The D. O. C. may use AI to release new music.

And banks are under pressure to refund funds to Zelle users who were scammed out of their money, while the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau aims to regulate all digital payment apps like Banks.

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Electric vehicle sales are actually up year over year but their increased cost compared to the ICE counterparts keeps consumers from adopting them at the rate auto manufacturers thought they would.

Elon Musk’s generative AI company X.ai released its LLM Grok this week. The chatbot comes with an X Premium+ account and answers you in a snarky tone.

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are out. Are you going to cop a pair, or, naw?

And Click Workers, the people who train AI, are underpaid, underappreciated, and incentivized to “go along with the group” instead of calling it like they see it.

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Cruise’s robotaxi permit was immediately suspended in San Francisco after the company failed to report the whole story about a pedestrian-involved accident and two days later the company suspended service everywhere.

Facebook and Instagram launched ad-free premium subscriptions in Europe.  And X, formerly Twitter, launched Basic and Premium+ subscriptions here in the U.S.

Multiple states are suing Meta because of beauty filters’ effects on children’s development.

And,  Dr. Joy Buolamwini, the Biden Administration, and the United Nations all feel some type of way about AI, its safeguards, and its proliferation.

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A jury awards a female Google Cloud executive $1.1 million because the company gave higher pay to less-experienced male cohorts and later denied her promotions in retaliation for complaining about it.

On the heels of the password-sharing crackdown and a 70% increase in ad-supported tiers, Netflix has a better-than-expected Q3.  The company is still hiking subscription prices though.

Google is rolling out RSS to YouTube and YouTube Music, but, it isn’t quite what many podcasters expected.

And, could former Fugees member Pras be granted an appeal because his former lawyer used A.I. to write closing arguments in his federal court case?

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