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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...
NFL legends Marshawn Lynch and Michael Robinson have partnered with Pine Sports, a sports-focused AI startup that has rapidly grown its community of bettors and fantasy players since launching in 2020. A key part of the partnership is Jaxon, Pine’s proprietary large language model — likened to OpenAI’s ChatGPT but built specifically for sports betting and fantasy, according to a news release shared with AFROTECH™. Beta-launched in 2024, Jaxon is trained exclusively on Pine’s sports data and live markets, blending data , sportsbook integrations, and advanced analytics to deliver actionable insights in seconds. “This is dope, it’s taken me a minute to fully grasp all that AI can do and be, but this right here… is a no brainer,” Lynch said in a statement. “I see what Pine’s doing with Jaxon, and I’m with it, why wouldn’t you use something that helps you play smarter, ya’ know what I mean?” Robinson added, “This tech is real. Fans want quick, smart answers. They want to know what...
As AI continues to spread across the United States and its influence shows no signs of fading, several Democratic lawmakers reintroduced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Civil Rights Act on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) first introduced the AI Civil Rights Act in 2024 to “establish protections for individual rights with respect to computational algorithms, and for other purposes,” The Grio reports . On Dec. 2, the progressive senator explained that AI tools are “biased against marginalized communities,” per the outlet. “We must address AI-powered bias and discrimination in the AI age,” Markey said in a news release shared on Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley’s website. “Under the AI Civil Rights Act, America would show leadership in AI — not just technological leadership, but moral leadership ,” he continued . “We cannot abandon our principles in reckless pursuit of technological superiority. Otherwise, we risk building a future where innovation races ahead,...
The New York Times reported on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, that it has filed a lawsuit against AI start-up Perplexity for alleged copyright infringement. According to the media company, Perplexity continues to use its content despite multiple requests over the past 18 months to stop until an agreement can be reached. Founded in 2022 by former OpenAI engineer Aravind Srinivas and other entrepreneurs, Perplexity is a free AI-powered answer engine that aims to provide “accurate, trusted, and real-time answers to any question,” according to its website. Filed in a New York federal court, the suit claims Perplexity’s search engine pulls large portions of information from The Times’ website or database to generate responses for users, which goes beyond fair use by offering content that directly competes with the newspaper. “Perplexity provides commercial products to its own users that substitute for The Times, without permission or remuneration,” the suit said, per The Times. The Times also...
Amazon employees are pushing back against the company’s AI-heavy pivot, accusing leadership of prioritizing AI investments over climate commitments and the human workforce. Thousands have signed an open letter to CEO Andy Jassy and senior leadership. The letter, published last week, has drawn more than 1,000 signatures from Amazon employees — who can sign anonymously while listing their roles — and over 2,000 people outside the company. “We, the undersigned Amazon employees, have serious concerns about this aggressive rollout during the global rise of authoritarianism and our most important years to reverse the climate crisis. We believe that the all-costs-justified, warp-speed approach to AI development will do staggering damage to democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth,” the letter states. “We’re the workers who develop, train, and use AI, so we have a responsibility to intervene.” In the letter, employees accused Amazon of “casting aside its climate goals to build AI,” noting...
U.S. shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion online during Black Friday (Nov. 28), the annual shopping event held the day after Thanksgiving, according to Reuters. Per the outlet, Adobe Analytics reported a 9.1% jump in sales from 2024, driven in part by the rise of AI-powered shopping tools. This year, shoppers increasingly skipped crowded stores and instead used chatbots to compare prices and find discounts. Adobe Analytics, which tracks 1 trillion online retail visits, found that AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites surged 805% from last year, which was before tools like Walmart’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus had launched. “Consumers are using new tools to get to what they need faster,” said eMarketer analyst Suzy Davidkhanian, per Reuters. “Gift giving can be stressful, and LLMs (large language models) make the discovery process feel quicker and more guided.” LEGO sets, Pokémon cards, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 consoles, Apple AirPods, and KitchenAid mixers were among the...
Artificial intelligence continues to influence how employees, executives, and organizations operate, and SKIMS founding partner Emma Grede is taking steps to keep pace with the technology. During Axios’ annual BFD dealmaking summit, Grede said she schedules an “AI day” once every six weeks, Fortune reports . She described the sessions as dedicated time to understand new tools, noting that she encourages women within her company to develop similar habits. “We have no choice but to AI-proof our careers,” Grede told Axios senior markets reporter Madison Mills during the event. Grede serves as chief product officer at SKIMS, the apparel and shapewear company she launched in 2019 with Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, SKIMS recently completed a $225 million funding round led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives that brought the company’s valuation to $5 billion. Fortune reports that Grede has an estimated net worth of $405 million and has appeared on Forbes’ list...
Is your Spotify app crashing? The digital music and podcast streaming service experienced technical issues during the early morning hours on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. According to PCMag, reports of app crashes spiked for both Android and iPhone users, with Downdetector picking up complaints around 3 a.m. EST and continuing through the morning. The disruptions primarily affected podcast playback, while many users were still able to listen to music and browse content without issues. Spotify’s status page confirms that the issue is still under investigation, as of the time of this writing. A spokesperson on Spotify’s Community forums advised users still experiencing trouble to restart their apps, reports PCMag. If that doesn’t help, Spotify recommends performing “a clean reinstall, which would also ensure you’re on the latest app version” — essentially deleting and reinstalling the app. Some users also reported difficulties subscribing to Spotify — which the company says has been...
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon believes AI will eventually shorten the work week and says people should embrace it now, before it transforms every corner of the workforce. Speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference at the America Business Forum in Miami, FL, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, Dimon said the future of work may involve fewer hours but greater value — if leaders take the proper steps now. He urged companies to modernize data systems so AI can use them effectively, invest despite power limitations, and create humane transitions for jobs that will disappear. “It’s going to affect every application, every job, every customer interface,” Dimon said, as Fortune reported. “My guess is the developed world will be working three-and-a-half days a week in 20, 30, 40 years, and have wonderful lives,” he continued. As AI takes on more routine work, the same result may require fewer hours — though every transition brings its own challenges. “It will eliminate jobs. People should...