Wally Sajimi has built a solid reputation as a creative strategist, innovator, and tech founder whose work sits at the intersection of fashion, culture, and experimental technology. As the co-founder of Nietzsche Labs, a New York-based venture studio built on experimentation and the pursuit of unconventional ventures that often emerge from unexpected places, Sajimi believes in challenging the status quo — even when the end result isn’t clear early on, he shared with AFROTECH™. Inspired by his time reading Friedrich Nietzsche, the studio serves as a growing umbrella for ideas, projects, and investments across multiple disciplines. For Sajimi, it’s about fluency, not dilution. How Nietzsche Labs Came To Be “I spent time at the intersection of music, fashion, and technology — watching trends get identified, monetized, and commodified by people who didn’t originate them. I wanted to build something that moved differently,” Sajimi told AFROTECH™, reflecting on how Nietzsche Labs came to...

For viewers across YouTube and TikTok, “Pop the Balloon or Find Love” has become one of the internet’s most recognizable dating shows. The viral series places singles face-to-face with potential matches who signal interest or rejection by popping a balloon. Comments on their YouTube videos display reactions that are often hilarious, sometimes awkward, and occasionally heartwarming. What began as a social media experiment quickly grew into a cultural moment in online dating conversations. Now the creators behind the show are seeking to bring that same energy into the tech world. Husband-and-wife duo Arlette Amuli and Bolia Matundi are launching Luv or Pop, and they describe it as a dating app designed to turn the show’s decision-driven format into a digital matchmaking experience. Instead of endless swiping, the couple wants users to focus on building intentional connections and making transparent choices. From Social Media Experiment To Viral Hit Amuli and Matundi told AFROTECH™...

Bryan Myers is prioritizing responsible growth at [solidcore]. Before Myers started working for [solidcore], he was a client. He took his first [solidcore] workout class 11 years ago and didn’t initially foresee having a greater presence within the company, which offers high-intensity, low-impact workout classes done on a reformer machine, according to its website. In 2018, he joined as chief operating officer, bringing experience as a project leader at Boston Consulting Group and as a former vice president of strategy and financial planning, as well as new-store development, at sweetgreen, per his LinkedIn. Today, he leads as the president and CEO of [solidcore] — after serving as president and COO — succeeding founder Anne Mahlum. Being a client-first leader is his superpower, he told AFROTECH™ in an interview. He has maintained empathy for the client experience and a deep appreciation for the coaches. Protecting The Culture Of [Solidcore] Myers views his takeover as a unique...

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen is stepping down, and AI may be playing a role in his departure. In a letter shared on Thursday, March 13, Narayen said that he has made the decision to transition out of the role after 15 years. He has served a total of 28 years at the company. Under his leadership, the company grew from fewer than 3,000 employees to more than 30,000, delivered tech into the hands of billions, and increased revenue from $1 billion to $25 billion, the letter stated. Narayen will officially make the transition when a successor is appointed. “I am so incredibly proud of what we have accomplished together,” he expressed in the letter. Narayen’s departure comes at a time when the company’s revenue forecast just surpassed estimates, but did not resolve investor concerns about the company’s innovation in AI compared to competitors, reports Bloomberg. The staffing change “adds questions around strategic continuity, capital allocation priorities, and pace of innovation,” Grace...

YouTube is expanding who will benefit from its likeness detection. According to a press release published on Wednesday, March 11, YouTube first launched a tool in 2025 to manage AI-generated content and give creators the ability to review content that matches them, such as deepfakes. They can then request that the content be removed if it violates YouTube’s policies. Expanding Program The tool initially benefited nearly 4 million creators in the YouTube Partner Program, according to TechCrunch . Now, it is being expanded to a pilot group of government officials, journalists, and political candidates, the release confirmed. Leslie Miller, YouTube’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, said in a release shared with TechCrunch that the company is aware of the high risks of AI impersonation, particularly in the civic space. She described the expansion as a “new shield” but stressed that caution is still needed around how likeness detection is used. “This expansion is...

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...

The NAACP is concerned about an approved permit that would harm the environment and the health of citizens in Southaven, MS, and surrounding areas. According to a news release from the NAACP, Southaven could soon be home to Elon Musk’s xAI power plants. The AI company founded by Musk in 2023 is building a “truth-seeking AI chatbot” called Grok, which features “frontier capabilities in conversation, coding, reasoning, and image and video generation,” according to its website. Per the release, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) issued an air permit that grants Musk’s company permission to operate various polluting methane gas turbines at its facility in Southaven. The permit was issued on March 10, following a hearing where community members openly spoke against MDEQ’s draft permit approving xAI’s presence in Southaven. To power xAi’s Colossus 2 data center in Memphis, TN, the company will build 41 gas turbines in Southaven, just across the state line, the...

Ex-MIT and Stanford engineer KJ Hardrict is changing the interview process for job seekers. Hardrict’s background spans engineering, venture capital, and content. He has worked at Link Ventures as a principal and served as a founding engineer and a senior engineer for various startups, according to his LinkedIn profile. Hardrict has also gained more than 115,000 YouTube subscribers. It’s the variety of his experience that has given him a front seat to the hiring process, Hardrict acknowledged to AFROTECH™. “As an engineer and startup operator, I saw how often incredible people were filtered out before anyone spoke to them. As an investor, I saw founders struggling to identify key talent in a sea of resumes,” he said. Hardrict also considered his own experience in the job market and noticed that being seen, not just read about, set him up for success. “Recruiters would watch my videos on YouTube, and within a few minutes, they understood who I was and how I thought. That made me...

After more than 20 years, BlackDoctor is revamping its mission to make health more accessible to Black Americans. Black Doctor 2.0 Formerly BlackDoctor.org, BlackDoctor has relaunched as a 360-degree health destination driven by the motto “Where Culture Meets Care,” according to a press release. The platform has expanded its reach to a network of over 20,000 practitioners, making it the largest single database of black healthcare professionals in America, according to BlackDoctor President Akinwole (Aki) Garrett. “We have pretty much every Black HCP (healthcare professional) in our database across the country,” Garrett told AFROTECH™ in an interview. Users will have expanded access to Black healthcare providers using the Find a Doctor tool, while healthcare providers will have a more actionable network, he shared. Soon, BlackDoctor’s network will extend to culturally sensitive physicians, referring to those who serve a high population of Black patients but are not Black. WellBot...

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...

Apple Music users will now be informed when AI is used to generate content. Billboard reported that Apple Music has updated its “ delivery requirement ” to ensure record labels and music distributors are transparent with users by adding “ Transparency Tags ” when AI is used for the “ material portion ” of content. It would cover the areas of artwork, track, composition, and music video. Apple Music views the requirements as a vital step toward transparency and the establishment of industry-wide best practices and policies that will benefit all parties, according to a newsletter it shared. “Proper tagging of content is the first step in giving the music industry the data and tools needed to develop thoughtful policies around AI,” Apple said in the newsletter, according to Music Business Worldwide. “And we believe labels and distributors must take an active role in reporting when the content they deliver is created using AI.” Apple Music’s four areas in which its Transparency Tags can...

Morehouse College will help build a supercomputer, projected to be one of the most powerful in the Southeast, according to a news release. The Morehouse Center for Broadening Participation in Computing has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to start building supercomputer Horizon, which falls under the Leadership-Class Computing Facility (LCCF) project. Morehouse is working with an initial $5 million portion of the grant, and more funds will be disbursed to support ongoing operations. The project combines “cutting-edge technologies with advanced infrastructure to redefine what is possible in scientific computing,” according to information shared by The University of Texas at Austin, which is leading the $457 million project. Morehouse, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), will build and house Horizon and provide additional support through summer programs for middle and high school boys, a postbaccalaureate program in AI, and faculty accelerators in...

Amazon’s latest round of layoffs is affecting its robotics unit, according to Business Insider. Layoffs Explained It is not clear how many individuals were laid off in the unit, but a spokesperson confirmed it was a “relatively small number of robotics roles,” per Business Insider. Amazon Robotics VP Scott Dresser stated the layoffs were “difficult” yet “necessary.” The layoffs also do not reflect the company’s commitment to robotics. It remains a “strategic priority,” he told the outlet. A spokesperson told Business Insider that Amazon will continue to “hire and invest in strategic areas.” “We regularly review our organizations to make sure teams are best set up to innovate and deliver for our customers,” the spokesperson continued, according to Business Insider. “We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we’re committed to supporting employees whose roles are affected with severance pay, health insurance benefits, and job placement support.” This layoff follows Amazon’s...

Knowing when to leave for the airport just got easier. Product Manager and Builder Ke’Shawn Alexander is a Washington, D.C., native who now resides in Atlanta, GA. He developed an interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) early on, taking inspiration from his family. His grandmother was a mathematician, and his uncle worked for NASA as a drafter, he told AFROTECH™. Alexander wound up attending a STEM middle school, and later earned a bachelor’s in general science from Morehouse College and a bachelor’s in engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. SkySpot Now, Alexander is putting his skills to the test by building his first tech startup inspired by his travel experiences. As an avid traveler, he would regularly navigate the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, calculating parking lot availability, TSA wait times, and traffic routes with each trip. This shaped what became SkySpot, an AI-powered trip...

Registered investment advisor Darryl Cohen has been charged with defrauding NBA player Jrue Holiday and others. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Cohen and accountant Brian Gilder persuaded Holiday and former NBA players Chandler Parsons and Courtney Lee to purchase viatical life insurance policies at inflated prices. Cohen allegedly concealed that Gilder controlled the law firm he selected to purchase the policies, which he then sold to the athletes at markups of 244% for Holiday, 222% for Parsons and 310% for Lee, per the release. A large portion of the profits was then allegedly used by Cohen and Gilder on personal expenses. This included nearly $178,462 for Cohen’s home and pool, nearly $67,500 to pay a credit card bill, and nearly $200,000 transferred to an individual with whom Cohen was romantically involved, the press release noted. Additional claims included the transfer of $500,000 in funds from Parsons’ and...