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![[Solidcore] CEO Bryan Myers Is Protecting The Best Parts Of The Business While Embracing Technology To Prepare For Its Future](https://cdn.afrotech.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Bryan-Myers.jpg "[Solidcore] CEO Bryan Myers Is Protecting The Best Parts Of The Business While Embracing Technology To Prepare For Its Future")
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Congresswoman Valerie P. Foushee has introduced legislation to ensure that Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) expand their stake in AI. According to a press release, Foushee, who is also the co-chair of the House Democratic Commission on AI and the Innovation Economy, introduced the HBCU Artificial Intelligence Research Leadership Act. The legislation would ensure that HBCUs can launch federally funded AI Research Institutes. It would require the National Science Foundation’s National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program to reserve 10% of research institutes for HBCUs. These research institutes would be operated by an HBCU or would be established in partnership with an HBCU. “This legislation expands access to cutting-edge research, strengthens the AI workforce pipeline, and creates high-quality jobs and economic opportunity in communities that have too often been left out of major federal investments. By ensuring HBCUs are full partners in our...
The Arthur M. Blank Spelman Innovation Lab has produced another technological advancement. The makerspace at Spelman College was created for creative inquiry, unconventional research, experimental pedagogy, and exploratory play, according to its website. It energizes students in art, science, technology, and engineering and provides tools such as 3D printers, laser cutters, 4-axis CNC routers, and 3D scanners. PlantGPT Now, several students and alumni have used the lab to develop a project that improves plant health, called PlantGPT. Assistant Director and Lab Manager Eric Thompson and class of 2024 biology graduate Grace Burch started the project in August 2023. Others involved in the PlantGPT project include game development major Devyn Washington and computer science majors Joy Rutledge and Temple Dees. Now, they’ve built an AI-powered conversational assistant focused on plant health, intended for current and prospective plant and crop owners. The project is testing on a...
Jack Dorsey has announced major layoffs that will impact several tech companies. Dorsey is the co-founder of Block, which owns Square, Cash App, and Afterpay, CNN reported. He revealed on X that he will reduce its workforce from over 10,000 to just under 6,000, eliminating roughly 4,000 roles. He said affected employees will be asked to leave or enter consultation. Those who lose their position will receive 20 weeks of their salary, an additional week of pay per year of tenure, vested equity through May, six months of healthcare, corporate devices, and $5,000 that can be used to ease the transition. He shared that these conditions may vary for those who work outside the U.S. In the post, Dorsey explained the decision to employees, making it clear it was not a sign the company was in decline. In fact, he said the business is strong, gross profit is rising, customer reach is expanding, and profitability is improving. Instead, the workforce reduction is informed by intelligence tools...
Comedian Katt Williams is partnering with Miles College to ensure students are ahead of the learning curve in technology. Complex reported that Williams and the Alabama historically Black college and university (HBCU) are launching a scholarship to support learners in AI and augmented reality (AR). The scholarship fund will provide students with opportunities to learn virtual production, CGI, and immersive storytelling. “There are a lot of jobs right now that in five years won’t be in existence because of AR and AI, and we want to make sure that our students are equipped with the tools they need to operate in that world,” Miles College President Bobbie Knights said, according to WVTM 13. In addition, Williams is opening a production hub in Anniston, AL, at the closed U.S. Army training base, Fort McClellan. The hub — launched under his production company Kemet Movie Works — takes inspiration from the region’s history, including the Chitlin’ Circuit, which supported the careers of...
Reload has secured new funding to launch its first AI employee. Reload is an AI workforce management platform co-founded by Newton Asare and Kiran Das, launched with the belief that employees will serve as managers of AI teammates who will handle roles in streamlining orchestration, access management, tracking, and payments, according to a news release shared with AFROTECH™. Reload’s inaugural product is EPIC , its first AI employee. Per the release, EPIC is described as an AI solutions architect that can work with software engineers and the AI agents they have already deployed. The technology is already a verified extension in AI software, Cursor, per the news release. “Coding agents are optimized to respond to the next prompt, not to remember why decisions were made. That leads to lost context, constant re-prompting, and wasted tokens,” said Newton Asare, co-founder and CEO of Reload, in the news release. “EPIC gives coding agents the intelligence of a senior solutions architect,...
Ice-T considers himself a realist about AI. The rapper and actor took to X to share his thoughts on the technology, weighing both sides. Speaking from a musician’s perspective, he outlined several frustrations surrounding the cost and outcomes of creating visuals for songs, noting that production is expensive while compensation from platforms such as Spotify averages about $0.007 per stream. Meanwhile, he added that fans are paying little to nothing to consume the content, frequently streaming it for free, a point he used to argue for AI’s merit. “The days of the expensive videos are over. There isn’t an MTV. Ai is the only sensible way to add visuals to a song. You can hate it all you want. It’s the Future,” Ice-T wrote on X. PC: X/ @FINALLEVEL Ice-T added that concerns about the use of technology aren’t new to Hip Hop, noting that drum machines and synthesizers had also received criticism at their start. “Hip Hop would not exist without tech,” he said in a separate post. As the...
Dr. Luke Wood is committed to students’ success. He was born in a prison, became a ward of the court, and entered the foster care system with his twin brother. After being adopted into a larger foster home, he was raised in a small town in Northern California with few Black children in school, he shared in an interview with AFROTECH™. “Definitely had good experiences, but also had some real challenging experiences growing up in a very non-diverse environment. It’s a beautiful town, beautiful people, but just like any other place in the country, struggles with racism,” Dr. Wood told AFROTECH™. In the fifth grade, he recalled being perceived negatively for being a Black male foster kid. A teacher suspended him 42 times while his twin brother was suspended 24 times. The repeated discipline left him disillusioned with school, he shared. That changed the following school year. An educator named Mr. Guggenheimer poured into his interests of writing short stories, he told AFROTECH™. Mr....
Georgia is now home to a first-of-its-kind AI degree program. According to a news release, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved the launch of a bachelor’s degree in AI at Kennesaw State University (KSU), starting in fall 2026 on the KSU Marietta Campus and online through the College of Computing and Software Engineering. The degree will include a first-year experience course, a writing-intensive course geared toward computing, and an applied AI capstone that will also give students a chance to work with industry partners, the news release noted. There will also be internships and undergraduate research opportunities available for credit. The announcement arrives as the state prepares for a surge of 186,000 new STEM jobs over the next five years, per the news release. As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Atlanta ranks second among best cities for STEM professionals. Over the next decade, STEM professionals are projected to earn a median income of...