ShaCamree Gowdy

Vishnu Kannan has accomplished something few teenagers can claim. At age 16, he sold his tech startup, Room40 AI, for $2 million in stock, per the Baltimore Sun. Currently a 17-year-old senior at River Hill High School in Clarksville, MD, Kannan developed a love for math and problem-solving as an early elementary school student, notes the outlet. “I think a lot of the time when kids are introduced to math, they don’t really see it as a subject where there’s still things waiting to be discovered … a subject where we don’t really know what’s going on. But I think math has that quality much more than anything else,” Kannan told the Baltimore Sun. What Is Room40 AI? Kannan developed Room40 AI during a summer research program at Stanford University — but getting there took several key steps. Kannan taught himself to code in the popular programming language Python when he was in sixth grade, per The Baltimore Sun. Around the same time, he started reading about AI. By eighth grade, Kannan...

Blavity Media Group (BMG) and The Gathering Spot (TGS) have announced an exclusive partnership that positions BMG as the sole sales and activation partner for TGS’s sponsorship portfolio. The collaboration creates a new platform connecting brands with Black America’s most influential professionals, both through digital media and in private gathering spaces, according to a news release. “The Gathering Spot built physical spaces with the same philosophy we brought to digital media: that Black professionals deserve to be seen fully, not as a demographic, but as a community,” said Blavity Inc. CEO and Co-founder Morgan DeBaun. “Together, we’re creating something that reflects how our audience actually lives, online and offline, in content and in community. For brands that want to show up authentically, this is the way in.” How Blavity And The Gathering Spot Support Black Professionals BMG is the largest digital media platform amplifying Black culture . Together, its six brands —...

Meta is at the center of a class-action lawsuit stemming from an investigation into privacy concerns about the company’s Ray-Ban Meta AI smart glasses and their marketing. Filed on March 4, 2026, the lawsuit accuses Meta and its glasses manufacturing partner, Luxottica of America, of violating consumer protection laws, TechCrunch reports. Why Meta’s AI Glasses Are At The Center Of A Lawsuit Plaintiffs Gina Bartone of New Jersey and Mateo Canu of California allege that Meta violated privacy laws and engaged in false advertising by claiming strong security and privacy protections, per the outlet. According to the filing, Meta marketed its AI smart glasses as “responsible, safe, and engineered to address the privacy concerns that define the AI era.” However, the company’s statements — such as “designed for privacy, controlled by you” and “built for your privacy” — are misleading. Before this lawsuit, the U.K. regulator the Information Commissioner’s Office launched an investigation...

The long-awaited Obama Presidential Center will officially open to the public on June 19, 2026 — Juneteenth — on Chicago’s South Side. In a press release on Saturday, March 7, the Obama Foundation announced that the center’s dedication will take place on Thursday, June 18, with the campus opening to visitors the following day. Celebrations will run through June 21 with “a series of events that bring together the changemakers, community members, volunteers, and supporters who made the Obama presidency a reality and welcome visitors to celebrate the power of hope and change,” the Foundation said in the release. What Is The Obama Presidential Center? As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the Obama Presidential Center — first announced in 2015 — is an $800 million museum and public gathering space honoring former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama. Once completed, it will be the most expensive presidential center in the nation’s history. The 19-acre campus will tell...

Apple Inc. has introduced modern updates to its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, making both devices faster and more efficient in a rapidly evolving technology landscape. What’s New From Apple? On Tuesday, March 3, 2026, Apple announced that the MacBook Air had been upgraded to its latest M5 chip, bringing it in line with the MacBook Pro, which first debuted the processor in October 2025, according to Wired. The move aligns both laptops with Apple’s newest silicon, delivering faster speeds and improved overall performance. While the design remains unchanged, the MacBook Air now starts with 512GB of storage featuring faster SSD technology . It remains available in 13-inch and 15-inch display sizes, notes Wired. Both models also include Apple’s N1 wireless chip, supporting Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for the most up-to-date connectivity. The MacBook Air continues to come standard with 16GB of RAM, with pricing starting at $1,099 for the 13-inch model and $1,299 for the 15-inch version,...

As people woke up in the early morning hours of Monday, March 2, 2026, many Claude users experienced widespread service disruptions . Thousands of users reported issues with Anthropic’s popular AI chatbot and its coding platform, Claude Code, according to outage-tracking website Downdetector. While the exact cause of the outage remains unclear, Anthropic said there were “elevated errors” affecting some services in an initial status update, Bloomberg reports . According to updates posted on Anthropic’s website, the company began investigating the issue at 11:49 a.m. UTC. At 1:37 p.m. UTC, the company said, “We have discovered that some API methods are not working,” noting that they were continuing to investigate, per its website. By 3:25 p.m. UTC, it added, “The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented.” As of 3:50 p.m. UTC, the incident has been resolved. How Claude And Claude Code Became Central To AI Workflows The outage comes after Claude Code creator, Boris...

Netflix has withdrawn its reported $83 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) after months of competing for the company, clearing the path for a rival offer backed by media executive David Ellison. In a joint statement released Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said the company would not increase its bid to counter a competing offer from Paramount Skydance. While praising WBD as a “world-class organization,” the executives said the deal was “no longer financially attractive.” “We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S.,” the co-CEOs said. “But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.” Inside The Netflix And Paramount Fight For WBD As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Netflix reached an agreement in December 2025 to acquire a...

A trustee at Michigan State University (MSU) is standing firm in her demands for the institution to revisit diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and strengthen support for Black students on campus. Rema Vassar, who serves on MSU’s Board of Trustees, has published two opinion pieces outlining her concerns — one on Feb. 2, 2026, in Bridge Michigan and another on Feb. 20 in the Michigan Chronicle. In the most recent op-ed, Vassar pushed back on university officials who said she mischaracterized the state of MSU’s diversity and equity efforts. She said that over multiple years, Black students have recorded the lowest graduation rates, the highest rates of academic probation, the greatest student loan debt , and the lowest sense of belonging on campus. “These are not isolated blips,” Vassar wrote. “They form a pattern in which Black students are consistently positioned at the bottom of nearly every measure of ‘student success.'” Push For Data Transparency At Michigan State...

Discord has cut ties with Persona, its identity verification software, after researchers discovered that its front-end code was publicly accessible — even on U.S. government servers. On Feb. 16, 2026, researchers on X reported in a blog post that nearly 2,500 files were exposed on a government-authorized endpoint. The files revealed that Persona, an AI-driven verification platform partially funded by Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel’s venture firm Founders Fund, conducted facial recognition checks and screened users against politically sensitive watchlists, Fortune reports . Beyond verifying age, Fortune reports that Persona runs 269 different verification checks , including monitoring for negative media coverage across categories such as terrorism and espionage, then assigns risk and similarity scores to user information. “We didn’t even have to write or perform a single exploit; the entire architecture was just on the doorstep,” a researcher wrote, per Fortune. The researchers...

Five Black designers are redefining denim through a bold collaboration between Gap and Harlem’s Fashion Row (HFR) that pushes boundaries and celebrates individuality. Launched on Feb. 13, 2026, the 20-piece collection is available on Gap.com and in select Gap store locations, according to a news release. The collection features styles ranging from $98 to $148. The five designers — Daveed Baptiste of Daveed Baptiste, LaTouché of LaTouché, Igdaliah Pickering of IGDALYAH, Waina Chancy of Atelier Ndigo, and Nicole Benefield of Nicole Benefield Portfolio — each present a four-piece capsule. Every collection highlights the designer’s distinct approach to artistry, construction, and material innovation, the news release states. Together, they transform denim into wearable art that merges storytelling, heritage , craft, and individuality, it notes. “Denim has always been central to Gap’s place in culture,” Mark Breitbard, president and CEO of the Gap brand, said in a statement. “This...

At a time when companies — particularly in big tech — are cutting human roles while investing heavily in AI, anxiety about job displacement is growing. Now, one tech founder is predicting that one of the most rigorous and highest-paid professions could fundamentally change by the end of 2026. During a Feb. 19, 2026, appearance on Lenny Rachitsky’s “ Lenny’s Podcast,” Boris Cherny, creator and head of Claude Code at Anthropic, said he believes coding has effectively been “solved.” As a result, he sees an inevitable transformation ahead for software engineers in the age of AI. “I think by the end of the year, everyone is going to be a product manager, and everyone codes. The title software engineer is going to start to go away,” Cherny said, Fortune reports . “It’s just going to be replaced by ‘builder,’ and it’s going to be painful for a lot of people.” What Is Claude Code? Cherny developed Claude Code while in Anthropic ‘s Bell Labs-style experimental division, per Fortune. Released...

Entrepreneur and multidisciplinary artist Temi Coker — whose clients have included Google , Netflix, and Adobe, according to his website — is using culturally resonant art and sustainable, innovative methods to redefine how art, heritage, and home design intersect. Known for creating designs that celebrate both his Nigerian roots and African American identity, Coker has transformed his artistic vision into the 18-piece Temi Coker Home Collection, available exclusively at Walmart. Centered on his family — his wife and two children — the collection embraces emerging technologies at a time when many view them as a threat, while emphasizing duality and honoring the multiple facets of Coker’s identity. Each piece creates space for others to see themselves reflected in the work. “Being able to bring in technology as a tool to solve a problem, I think that’s what it should be used for,” Coker told AFROTECH™. As a business owner and product founder, he sees technology not as a replacement...

As the Trump administration continues to compel public colleges and universities to end diversity, equity, and inclusion ( DEI ) policies and practices, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has called for federal assistance in reviewing higher education institutions in his state. On Feb. 23, 2026, Landry announced via news release that he had formally requested the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to expand its Feb. 13, 2026, inquiry into the Louisiana Board of Regents to include all public colleges and universities statewide. In a letter to Kimberly Richey, assistant secretary at the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, Landry noted that the investigation he wants expanded concerns whether the Louisiana Board of Regents discriminates against white and Asian students in recruitment and enrollment through objectives outlined in its 2019 Master Plan. “Let me be clear: Louisiana is done with woke DEI policies. Discrimination against ANY student will not be...

Gen Z is reportedly the first generation to grow up with screens at the heart of their school life, and early research suggests it isn’t working out in their favor. As of 2024, the United States has spent $30 billion on educational technology , providing laptops and tablets to public school children to replace textbooks and support digital lessons, Vocal reports. While the goal was to modernize teaching and boost learning, neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath shared his concerns with the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Jan. 15, 2025. During a hearing about children’s screen time, he told the committee that the heavy reliance on screens in classrooms has coincided with declining cognitive performance among students. Why Gen Z Is The First To Underperform Previous Generations Horvath explained that Gen Z is the first in modern history to score lower on standardized tests than the generation before it, even though they have more years of formal...

President Donald Trump wants Netflix to remove foreign policy expert Susan Rice from its board, warning the company will “pay the consequences” if it does not. In a Feb. 21, 2026, post on Truth Social, Trump shared comments from conservative influencer Laura Loomer, who criticized Rice, a Democrat, over her remarks that there would be an “accountability agenda” targeting corporations that had reportedly taken “a knee to Trump.” Loomer accused Rice of supporting “weaponized government” and political retaliation. Trump wrote in his post, “Netflix should fire racist, Trump Deranged Susan Rice, IMMEDIATELY, or pay the consequences. She’s got no talent or skills – Purely a political hack! HER POWER IS GONE, AND WILL NEVER BE BACK. How much is she being paid, and for what??? Thank you for your attention to this matter.” Trump’s comments come amid a takeover battle between Netflix and Paramount Skydance for Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) studios and streaming assets. According to The...