The Walt Disney Co. is backing out of a reported $1 billion investment deal with OpenAI that would have licensed more than 200 of its characters for use in the AI text-to-video app Sora, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sora, which initially launched in December 2024 and generates realistic animated videos from written prompts, is now shutting down. The closure was announced in a post on X on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. “We’re saying goodbye to Sora. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you,” the company said on X. “What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing. We’ll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work.” Led by CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI’s Sora offered free use of known intellectual property and actors since its launch, per The Hollywood Reporter. The platform quickly moved to give studios and talent greater control over their intellectual property and...
Jam Vino by Chef Lorious is a line of wine-infused gourmet jams. Made with 100% real fruit and five all-natural ingredients, it’s vegan, gluten-free, family-friendly, and rich in fine wine flavor. Behind the brand are Chef Lorious “Lori” Rogers and her husband, Shane Rogers — a duo building at the intersection of Black love , innovation, and ownership. With no prior manufacturing experience, the couple entered the consumer packaged goods industry head-on. They created a new category while sourcing co-packers, navigating compliance, scaling production, and growing a nationally recognized brand. “The truth is, it’s really kind of getting into what do you have, who are you, and what can you make that’s an expression of yourself? And it doesn’t have to always be that thought out and that much intention,” Lori told AFROTECH™. The Making Of Jam Vino Beyond product formulation, innovation isn’t just about taste or creating something different — it’s about creating something personal. For...
The NAACP has released findings from a new report examining health equity across the United States. As one of the largest contemporary grassroots assessments of community health resources to date, “ACE Your Health” is backed by rigorous, science-based analysis from global pharmaceutical company Sanofi. According to a news release shared with AFROTECH™, the report draws on responses from nearly 23,000 people across 47 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. It provides insight into the real-world conditions shaping health outcomes in under-resourced neighborhoods and historically underserved communities, offering data to help local leaders, policymakers, advocates, and health systems drive meaningful change. “The voices of nearly 23,000 people are a powerful reminder that health is shaped, or undermined, long before anyone walks into a doctor’s office. Our collaboration with the NAACP on the ACE Your Health report reflects Sanofi’s belief that the most powerful innovations happen...
MacKenzie Scott is continuing her support of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with the donation of $42 million to Elizabeth City State University (ECSU). ECSU Chancellor S. Keith Hargrove Sr. announced the gift on Friday, March 13, 2026, during the university’s Founders Day Convocation, which marked 135 years since its founding in 1891. The institution has long been committed to expanding access and opportunity through its mission to educate, empower, and elevate, according to a press release. “I want to express our deepest gratitude to MacKenzie Scott for this remarkable act of generosity and for her recognition of the critical role that HBCUs play in expanding opportunity and strengthening communities,” Hargrove said in a statement. “Her investment affirms what we already know: that institutions like ECSU are powerful catalysts for change.” How MacKenzie Scott’s $42M Gift Will Benefit ECSU The gift marks the largest per-student donation among HBCUs in Scott’s...
Two Maryland brothers, Patrick and Charles Boyd, received a combined 38 years in prison for orchestrating a nationwide drug diversion scheme that endangered HIV-positive patients, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Charles, CEO of SafeChain Solutions, and his brother Patrick, managing partner overseeing sales, were sentenced Friday, March 13, 2026, following a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), per an agency press release. Inside The Boyd Brothers’ Nationwide HIV Drug Fraud The brothers, owners of wholesale pharmaceutical distributor SafeChain Solutions, allegedly conspired with black-market suppliers to buy HIV medications at steep discounts from unsuspecting patients and then resold them in unsafe conditions, the Justice Department noted. Evidence presented at trial revealed that the Boyd brothers purchased some of the diverted drugs from patients on the...
The first Black-owned business in Philadelphia’s Chinatown is drawing widespread attention after opening its doors. In a historic move, Garci Peterkin opened Carter’s Cheesesteaks by Garci at 1016 Race Street in November 2025, The Philadelphia Tribune reports . Since then, the shop has attracted customers from across the region — including Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York — who have come to celebrate the milestone and support the business. For Peterkin, the response has been deeply meaningful. He says it marks the first time he has witnessed such a strong show of unity and community support for his business. “I’m not only the first African American in Chinatown, I’m actually the first non-Asian business in Chinatown,” Peterkin said, per The Tribune. “So, that alone, that feels amazing, my experience honestly is amazing.” Peterkin said he wasn’t actively looking to open a shop in Chinatown, according to The Tribune, but views the opportunity as part of God’s plan. The...
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...
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...