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Colin Kaepernick aims to equip youth with skills to use AI creatively and responsibly. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the former NFL star secured $4 million in funding to launch Lumi, an AI-powered storytelling platform designed to develop comics, graphic novels, manga, and other hybrid written-illustrated stories. The platform uses AI to help users create characters, define their traits and storylines, and leverage built-in image generation tools to bring their projects from concept to completion. Lumi aims to support students and teachers, according to its website. “I’ve seen struggling writers transform when they create a character that reflects who they are. I’ve seen teachers relax when they have tools that truly support, not replace, their role. Lumi was built for those moments,” Kaepernick said in a statement on the platform’s website. Kaepernick is now partnering with the Metro Nashville Public Schools district to pilot Lumi Story, according to The Tennessean. This...
A new bill has been passed that considers AI’s presence in small businesses. AI for Main Street Act Explained In October 2025, the AI for Main Street Act was introduced by Rep. Mark Alford (Republican for Missouri’s 4th District) and Rep. Hillary Scholten (Democrat for Michigan’s 3rd District). The bipartisan bill ensures that the Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Centers will assist small businesses in adopting and evaluating AI by providing information, guidance, and training, per a press release shared by Rep. Alford’s office. The desired outcomes, outlined in the legislation, are to ensure small businesses understand best practices for using AI; can integrate it into business operations; and can plan for unexpected circumstances, protect data and intellectual property, improve cybersecurity, and increase customer trust, among others. In the press release, Rep. Scholten noted the legislation would ensure small businesses “aren’t being left behind” as new...
The Gates Foundation and OpenAI are committing $50 million to African health clinics. Horizon1000 Fortune reports that the companies have launched a collaborative initiative called “ Horizon1000 ,” which aims to leverage AI to improve healthcare across sub-Saharan Africa, beginning in Rwanda. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Gates described the initiative as a “ game-changer for expanding access to quality care,” according to the Financial Times. The $50 million commitment will provide funding and AI tools to improve workflows at 1,000 primary healthcare clinics by 2028, reports the outlet. The effort comes as sub-Saharan Africa faces a shortage of around six million healthcare workers, leaving many patients without adequate administrative support or care. The gap has contributed to increased mortality rates and could undermine 25 years of progress in global health, Fortune reports. In Rwanda, there is one healthcare worker for every 1,000 people, far...
Bristol Myers Squibb and Microsoft will partner for medical advancements in lung cancer. An agreement was signed that will allow biopharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb to benefit from Microsoft’s AI-enabled radiology platform that can detect lung cancer in its early stages, Reuters reports. The drugmaker markets itself as a global leader in addressing complex diseases such as cancer and HIV, per its website . This agreement between the two will open doors for the deployment of radiology AI algorithms via Microsoft’s Precision Imaging Network — tools that have been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration , according to a press release. The network can analyze X-ray and CT images, which is helpful in detecting lung nodules sometimes difficult to recognize, the release added. The technology would also contribute to the improvement of radiologists’ workflows and be used by the majority of U.S. hospitals, per the release. “By combining Microsoft’s highly scalable...
Caine Ardayfio is betting on superintelligence. The founder began coding in eighth grade after his father introduced him to it. This led him down a rabbit hole of creating various websites and apps, and even learning about ethical hacking. When he was a high school senior, he launched his first startup focused on mental health , inspired by his sister. He even raised $100,000 and hired a small team, he told AFROTECH™ in an interview . Mira Today, Ardayfio is focusing on his next move in technology. He has paused his education at Harvard University for Mira, a startup disrupting the wearable technology space with AI glasses that “just sit in on your conversations to help make you smarter throughout the day,” according to Ardayfio. The company was co-founded with AnhPhu Nguyen, whom Ardayfio met at Harvard’s makerspace. Together, they built projects including flamethrowers, robotic tentacles, and smart glasses, which garnered 80 million views and helped build the foundation for Mira,...
Howard University has introduced an AI course to prepare its students for leading-edge engineering roles, according to a press release shared with AFROTECH™. The Historically Black College and University (HBCU) is rolling out an Intro to Artificial Intelligence course in spring 2026, in partnership with CodePath and with the financial support of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF). Howard faculty and CodePath’s faculty network will work together on course instruction in areas including data structures, AI literacy, and agentic workflows, per the press release. “Our work is rooted in the idea that HBCUs are not only equipping students for coursework but also building skills vital to succeeding and leading in the workplace,” said Dr. Harry L. Williams, TMCF president and CEO, in the press release. “Through programs like this and professional development such as what our Innovation & Partnership arm provides, our HBCUs are elevating excellence and creating pathways to opportunity...
will.i.am is working to ensure that children from low-income communities are prepared with skills in robotics and agentic systems. will.i.am is an innovator whose work spans music and technology. However, the root of his work ethic lies in his time growing up in the Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, housing project. He credits some of his most meaningful memories to that time, noting that those experiences gave him the ability to dream. “If someone said, ‘Hey, gimme all your Black Eyed Peas memories for your project memories,’ I would give my Black Eyed Peas memories away because the memories in the projects were my ingredients to get those Black Eyed Peas memories. It’s the most wonderful thing that I could ever imagine,” will.i.am told AFROTECH™ at CES 2026. Still, he was clear that his upbringing came with real challenges, including the loss of friends who passed away or were sent to prison, and even once standing in line at the welfare office for unemployment. “It was hard … If you...
Character.AI and Google have agreed to settle a lawsuit regarding a 14-year-old’s suicide. Character.AI was founded by former Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas in 2021, and the platform allows millions of users to create and chat with AI characters that can simulate a friend, a girlfriend, or another intimate partner, according to The New York Times. The platform has secured $200 million in investments, and Google has also paid the company nearly $3 billion to license Character.AI’s technology, with the founders returning to their posts at Google. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III developed a romantic attachment to a Character.AI chatbot with the likeness of the “ Game of Thrones ” character Daenerys Targaryen. The attachment was described as toggling between platonic and romantic. Various messages were exchanged , and Setzer became increasingly disconnected from the real world, even losing interest in activities he once enjoyed such...
Wu-Tang’s RZA is leaning into AI to accelerate his creativity across both film and music. Born Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, RZA admitted during a CES 2026 panel titled “ From Concept to Reality: Creatives Using AI to Bring Big Ideas to Life,” that he views the technology as a strong creative assistant. It has provided a foundation for his work, enabling him to operate more efficiently. “Creativity is time … It could take three days to get something good with today’s technology. And with AI assistant, I could turn that three days to three hours. So even quicker,” RZA told the audience. Gemini He also shared he uses Gemini, Google’s AI assistant that can turn words into videos and create images in seconds, according to its website. While working on a film project where he wanted the characters to board the Staten Island ferry, then travel across a frozen Hudson River with RZA’s logo, RZA used Gemini to create those conditions, which would typically be difficult for productions to achieve,...
Universal Music Group (UMG) aims to leverage AI to enhance the experience of music lovers worldwide. According to a news release, the company is teaming up with NVIDIA to improve fan engagement globally by deploying NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure alongside UMG’s music catalog, which spans millions of tracks across genres. Per the release, the partnership focuses on three key objectives — music discovery, engagement, and creation — and the first two goals will utilize NVIDIA Music Flamingo, a large audio–language model that can understand and capture harmony, structure, timbre, lyrics, and cultural context for tracks of up to 15 minutes. The press release states the model has a “ human-like understanding of songs, ” and is expected to help fans discover music in new ways while giving artists opportunities to expand their audiences. “We’re entering an era where a music catalog can be explored like an intelligent universe — conversational, contextual, and genuinely interactive,” said...
Amazon has launched a slate of initiatives to ensure learners are equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) training. During a session at CES 2026 titled “ Next-Gen Skills: Preparing Students for Tomorrow’s Tech, ” Ben Moskovich, senior manager of public policy at Amazon Web Services, shared that Amazon aims to train 4 million learners in AI and ensure that 10,000 educators are equipped with curricula by 2028. This goal is supported by $30 million in AWS promotional credits and an additional $1.5 million in cash prizes awarded to students who are victorious in the Presidential AI Challenge, a press release confirms. Presidential AI Challenge The Presidential AI Challenge is geared toward K-12 youth, educators, mentors, and community teams who are leveraging AI for real-world solutions, according to the White House. People of all backgrounds are encouraged to engage with the program and showcase their work nationally. The challenge stems from an executive order signed by President...
An AI-powered solution was launched for displaced workers and recent college graduates in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area. Talent Capital Talent Capital, a regional career services initiative of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, was launched in Washington, D.C., by Mayor Muriel Bowser and partners in October 2025, according to a press release. The new program comes after over 317,000 federal employees lost their jobs in 2025, with defense, agriculture, and treasury departments taking the hardest hits, per Federal News Network. In the DMV area, 34,100 federal employees lost their jobs from January to September 2025, according to Bethesda Magazine. Furthermore, college graduates have also been challenged in the job market with fewer entry-level positions available, CNBC mentions. Youth unemployment is sometimes an “early indicator that the economy is slowing down or maybe even heading towards a recession,” according to Anders Humlum,...
T.I. is reshaping his perspective around AI. On the rapper’s podcast “expediTIously,” which has more than 619,000 subscribers (at the time of this writing), he weighed in on technology, — something that has a stronghold across various industries including music. Some in the industry are banking on AI-powered music creation platforms like Suno. Timbaland is an advocate for Suno and serves as its strategic advisor, as AFROTECH™ previously told you. Dr. Dre is also leveraging AI while producing works for Bruce Springsteen, T.I. confirmed on the podcast. It was the Compton, CA-born and “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang” artist who changed T.I.’s viewpoint around AI. “I think it’s dangerous. Initially I have been emphatically against it,” T.I. explained. “However, I talked to Dr. Dre and you know he was telling me about you know he’s producing for Bruce Springsteen and he telling me that he’s using some AI. He sent me some stuff that he did on AI, and he was like ‘No it’s still work. You still...
Artificial intelligence made an impact on the job market in 2025. AFROTECH™ has reported various layoffs across a handful of companies this year, with AI being a contributing factor. Among them is Microsoft, which laid off 15,000 workers, about 17% of its workforce, while continuing to invest $80 billion in AI. “We continue to implement organisational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a Microsoft spokesperson told BBC in July when a 9,000 reduction in the tech company’s workforce was announced. HP also shared that it intends to lay off between 4,000 and 6,000 employees by 2028 as it integrates AI into its operations, per CNN. As AFROTECH™ stated, it intends to lay off employees in product development, internal operations, and customer support. According to CNN, HP CEO Enrique Lores said, “This initiative will create $1 billion in gross run rate savings over three years.” AI can already replace $1.2 trillion in wages across sectors...
Blanca Burch is shedding light on the misrepresentation of Black hairstyles by AI. The Milwaukee native attended an immersion school for elementary and middle school. She spent half her days speaking French and the other half speaking English, which she credits with giving her a global perspective and sparking her curiosity about areas beyond her immediate community. When she attended Spelman College, she initially entered as a psychology major but later pivoted to international relations and affairs with a focus on East Asia. “I had been studying Japanese for about a year when I first came to Spelman. So I figured that would be a fun path to take,” she told AFROTECH™. She took a course at the HBCU’s Arthur M. Blank Spelman Innovation Lab as a junior, a makerspace that supports “creative inquiry, unconventional research, experimental pedagogy, and exploratory play” to help students in art, science, technology, and engineering, its website reads. Culturally Kreative Art was a focus...