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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...
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 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...
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...
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...
Amazon.com Inc. , the e-commerce giant founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, has surpassed Walmart Inc. to become the world’s largest company by revenue, Bloomberg reports . Amazon’s growth stems from a shift in consumer spending from brick-and-mortar stores to online shopping, as well as the rapid expansion of its cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the outlet notes. For the 12 months ending Dec. 31, 2025, Amazon reported sales of $717 billion, while Walmart reported $713.2 billion in sales for its fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2026. Walmart had held the top spot by revenue for more than 10 years. With most of their revenue coming from the United States, the two retail titans continue to compete closely for consumer dollars. Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer with 2.7 billion visits each month to its website and mobile apps globally, per Bloomberg. Walmart remains the world’s largest physical retailer, operating over 10,000 stores and shopping clubs worldwide,...
Amanda Spann wears many hats — the former Wells Fargo and IBM professional is a serial app entrepreneur, author, and educator helping non-technical professionals enter the tech industry. At the center of her work is The App Accelerator, a 15-week product-development program that teaches professionals how to build viable, tech-enabled businesses around their app idea — without learning to code. The program, which offers coaching, training, mentorship, and other resources, is now expanding to more than 100 universities nationwide, according to information shared with AFROTECH™. Spann also counts billionaire philanthropist Robert F. Smith as a supporter of her program. “I believe that God called me to help people actualize their dreams. And apps are just the medium that I’ve chosen to help people do that,” Spann told AFROTECH™ in an interview. With economic mobility a major driving force behind her work, Spann noted that one “big thing” she consistently observes while visiting...
Eightfold AI is at the center of a new lawsuit filed by job seekers who want greater transparency into how artificial intelligence evaluates job applicants. Two women with STEM backgrounds have filed the lawsuit alleging that Eightfold’s AI unfairly screened them out of roles for which they were qualified at companies such as Microsoft and PayPal , according to a news release from law firm Outten & Golden. The plaintiffs argue that AI-powered hiring systems should be regulated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970, the same law that governs credit bureaus, because these AI tools collect personal data and significantly influence employment decisions. Erin Kistler, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, has decades of experience in the technology industry, The New York Times reports . Yet after applying to thousands of jobs in the past year, with several applications processed through Eightfold’s software system, only 0.3% resulted in a follow-up or interview, she shared. “I...
The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia, celebrated the platform’s 25th anniversary by announcing new partnerships with several leading technology and AI companies. In a news release issued Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, the foundation shared that Ecosia, Microsoft, Mistral AI, Perplexity , Pleias, and ProRata have joined existing tech partners — including Amazon, Google, and Meta — to support Wikipedia’s sustainability. Wikipedia And The AI Age Under the agreements, partner companies will be able to access content from Wikimedia projects at customized volumes and speeds, notes the release. The partnerships are part of Wikimedia Enterprise, a program that allows companies to pay for structured access to Wikipedia’s data to develop and train AI models. “Wikipedia shows that knowledge is human, and knowledge needs humans. Especially now, in the age of AI, we need the human-powered knowledge of Wikipedia more than ever,” Selena Deckelmann, Wikimedia...
Google Gemini is becoming more personalized with a new feature that tailors chatbot responses using data from users’ connected apps. Josh Woodward, Google’s vice president of Google Labs, Gemini, and AI Studio, announced the opt-in feature — called Personal Intelligence — in a blog post on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. The update allows Gemini to draw on information from apps such as Gmail, YouTube , Google Search, and Google Photos to deliver more relevant and contextual responses. “Personal Intelligence has two core strengths: reasoning across complex sources and retrieving specific details from, say, an email or photo to answer your question,” per the blog post. “It often combines these, working across text, photos, and video to provide uniquely tailored answers.” How Personal Intelligence Works In the blog post, Woodward shared several examples of how his “daily life has gotten easier” since using Personal Intelligence. In one instance, he asked Gemini for help buying new tires for...
As AI reshapes how students of all ages learn, retain information, and complete assignments, some enrollees at Louisiana State University (LSU) are facing cheating allegations. The allegations have created a significant backlog for the university’s Student Advocacy and Accountability Board (SAA), which reviews academic misconduct cases, many of them now tied to suspected AI use, WAFB 9 News reports. Suspected AI Use Puts Student’s Scholarship At Risk One student, identified only as Sarah, told WAFB 9 she was at risk of losing her scholarship after a professor gave her a zero on an assignment, claiming it was “93% AI-written.” “So, then I turn to the other people in my class, and they’re like, yeah, we got zeroes on it,” Sarah recalled. “We don’t know what’s happening. We email her. She emails us back and says she’s reported us to SAA.” Sarah said she received an automated message from the SAA after reaching out. The office informed her that it was backed up and that a case manager...
HealthStack Virtual Summit, powered by AFROTECH™, will take place on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. The event brings together physicians, nurses , and healthcare leaders for candid conversations about the healthcare industry. What Is HealthStack? HealthStack is a B2B platform for clinicians, health executives, and innovators committed to advancing equitable health care through credible reporting, industry news, and professional development opportunities — all in one centralized hub. What To Expect At HealthStack’s Virtual Summit The summit is designed for early- to mid-career professionals. They’ll be able to learn from industry leaders and gain a clearer sense of the future of health care — and their place within it. The summit will kick off at 10 a.m. PST with a welcome from Blavity Co-founder and CEO Morgan DeBaun , followed by an “AI for Nurses” workshop led by Anika Gardenhire, AdventHealth’s chief digital and transformation officer. Programming will continue with a fireside panel...
DoorDash has banned a delivery driver for allegedly using an AI-generated image in a suspected hack to fake a legitimate delivery. According to Nexstar, the on-demand delivery platform confirmed the deletion of the Dasher’s account following an incident where the driver allegedly used an AI-generated photo to convince a customer that their order had been delivered. The customer, Byrne Hobart of Austin, TX, first shared details of the incident, including the photo he allegedly received, in a post on X on Dec. 26, 2025. “Amazing. DoorDash driver accepted the drive, immediately marked it as delivered, and submitted an AI-generated image of a DoorDash order … at our front door,” Hobart wrote. Hobart later said he does not believe the DoorDash driver was ever at his home, but instead used several tactics to deceive both him and the company, Nexstar reports. He thinks the person behind the phony delivery was a scammer who hacked an actual driver’s account, changed their information, and...
The Walt Disney Co. is making a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI following a major deal where both companies commit to the responsible use of AI that protects user safety and creator rights. Announced by both companies on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, the three-year licensing deal aims to advance human-centered AI and respectful storytelling by bringing Disney characters into Sora, OpenAI’s text-to-video model that generates realistic, animated videos from text descriptions. “Technological innovation has continually shaped the evolution of entertainment, bringing with it new ways to create and share great stories with the world,” Robert A. Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Co., said in a statement. “The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence marks an important moment for our industry, and through this collaboration with OpenAI , we will thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling through generative AI , while respecting and protecting creators and their...