All results
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...
For those wondering, “What’s happening with Apple’s credit card?” — the tech giant announced on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, that Chase will become its new issuer. The change will replace Goldman Sachs, which has backed Apple Card since its launch in 2019, and will take place over the next two years. “Apple is an iconic brand recognized globally for its innovation, design excellence, and commitment to delivering exceptional customer experiences,” Allison Beer, Chase’s CEO of Card & Connected Commerce, said in a statement. She added, “We share a commitment to supporting consumer financial health, and we’re proud to deepen our relationship by welcoming them as the newest partner in our industry-leading co-brand credit card program. We’re excited to innovate together in the future.” Apple Card users can continue to use their cards as usual during the transition. Managing balances, accessing savings accounts , and applying for new cards will remain the same for now. Mastercard will also...
Some Amazon Prime members can now file a claim in a multi-billion-dollar settlement. Lawsuit Explained As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Amazon was sued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2023. The FTC alleged that Amazon enrolled millions of consumers in Prime subscriptions without their knowledge and made it difficult for them to cancel . The agency also alleged that Amazon obtained consumer billing information without clearly disclosing the material terms of the Prime membership , according to the settlement. The FTC said Amazon violated the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act. Amazon Prime Refund FTC Settlement The lawsuit was settled in September 2025 for $2.5 billion, which includes a $1 billion civil penalty and $1.5 billion in refunds to nearly 35 million customers, per an FTC news release. The settlement also requires Amazon to end the challenged Prime enrollment and cancellation practices. Amazon has not admitted any wrongdoing. “Today, the Trump-Vance FTC made...
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...
The Justice Department is looking closely into the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives of major U.S. companies, Reuters reports. Google and Verizon are among the companies being investigated for their diversity initiatives in hiring and promotions. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Verizon publicly announced that it planned to remove references to DEI from its website and training materials. Additionally, it claimed it would be removing its internal human resources team focused on diversity policies and would no longer offer bonuses or set goals to increase the representation of women and minority employees. “We are committed to creating a culture that leverages and values each person’s unique strengths and talents,” Verizon Chief Legal Officer Vandana Venkatesh said in a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr on May 15. “However, we recognize that the regulatory and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’)...
Has the time finally arrived to change the user address of a Google email account? The tech giant shared a hopeful update just in time for the holidays. The New York Times reports that, although users had previously been able to change their email usernames, if they wanted to keep their data and services such as Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Google Play, or Google Drive, the address had to remain unchanged. Some users have now been able to change the address for all their accounts ending in @gmail.com, while still having access to their data, such as photos, messages, and emails, unlike before. The feature is not available to all users yet. It appears only on the Hindi-language version of Google’s support page, suggesting it may be available first in India or Hindi-speaking markets for now, according to CNBC. “The ability to change your Google Account email address is gradually rolling out to all users, so this option may not be available to you right now,” according to an English...
TikTok appears to have avoided a ban in the U.S. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the social media platform used by more than 170 million Americans and owned by a China-based company, ByteDance Ltd., was required to sell TikTok’s USA operations to U.S. investors, or it would be banned. In 2024, lawmakers passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was intended to bar “foreign adversaries, such as China, from targeting, surveilling, and manipulating the American people through online applications like TikTok,” a press release states. While TikTok initially said it did not intend to sell, it later revealed a proposed transaction to form a joint venture that would allow ByteDance to maintain a minority stake. In the latest update, shared by CNN, an agreement has been reached for the U.S. TikTok app to be controlled by Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, who will own a 50% stake in the company. Certain existing investors in ByteDance will...
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,...
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...
Google has unveiled a new project that will reduce the environmental impact of AI on Earth. The tech company unveiled Project Suncatcher, which aims to launch data centers in space powered by solar energy, Business Insider reports. Google is exploring bringing the project to life through a web of solar-powered satellites, equipped with its Tensor Processing Unit AI chips, according to a press release. The project aims to “one day scale machine learning in space.” “Inspired by other Google moonshots like autonomous vehicles and quantum computing, we’ve begun work on the foundational work needed to one day make this future possible,” notes the press release. Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed that the company plans to launch the space data centers by 2027. “We’ll send tiny, tiny racks of machines, and have them in satellites, test them out, and then start scaling from there,” Pichai said, according to Business Insider. “At Google, we’re always proud of taking moonshots. One of our...
Verizon Communications plans to cut roughly 15,000 jobs in the coming week in its largest-ever round of layoffs, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The telecommunications company also intends to shift about 200 retail stores to franchise operations, moving those employees off Verizon’s payroll. Securities filings show that Verizon, the largest U.S. telecom provider by subscriber count, had about 100,000 employees as of February 2025, according to the WSJ. The cuts are part of a broader cost-reduction effort as the company faces increased competition in both the wireless and home internet markets, sources told the WSJ. Verizon has lost postpaid phone subscribers for three straight quarters as rivals continue to lure customers away. In the latest quarter, the company reported a net loss of 7,000 consumer postpaid phone lines — missing Wall Street projections — while AT&T and T-Mobile continued to grow their postpaid bases, notes the WSJ. New CEO...
AT&T will pay out $177 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over two customer data breaches revealed last year — and the deadline to file a claim is approaching, according to CNET. In one breach, which occurred in 2019 but wasn’t reported until March 30, 2024, hackers released sensitive information, including “a combination of names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, account passcodes, billing account numbers, and Social Security numbers,” on the dark web, according to the court-authorized settlement website managed by the Kroll Settlement Administration LLC. Another breach, disclosed on July 12, 2024, involved the illegal download of limited data on April 14, 2024, including customer details and phone numbers linked to affected accounts. The exposed information may have included call data of current and former AT&T customers, such as “the telephone numbers with which those customers interacted, counts of those interactions, aggregate call durations...
SoftBank has sold its entire $5.83 billion stake in U.S. chipmaker Nvidia to focus on its OpenAI investment. The Japanese investment firm announced on Nov. 11, 2025, that it sold 32.1 million Nvidia shares in October, along with a portion of its T-Mobile stake, which sold for $9.17 billion, CNBC reports . Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said the sales were part of the company’s “asset monetization” strategy. “We want to provide a lot of investment opportunities for investors, while we can still maintain financial strength,” Goto said during an investor presentation, per CNBC. The CFO also announced a four-for-one stock split . “So through those options and tools, we make sure that we are ready for funding in a very safe manner,” he added. A source reportedly told CNBC that SoftBank’s share sales of Nvidia and T-Mobile, along with a margin loan on its Arm holdings, are “sources of cash” for its $22.5 billion investment in OpenAI and for other projects, such as the acquisition...
Mustafa Suleyman has high hopes for the future of superintelligence and its impact on humanity. During a conversation at AFROTECH™ Conference 2025, he joked that he grew up playing “Snake” on a Nokia phone, which was supposedly a “phenomenon” when it launched in the late ’90s. Suleyman’s fascination with technological advancements never wavered, and his enthusiasm remains strong as the CEO of Microsoft AI. He shared his thoughts on superintelligence, stating early on that it “must always work in service of humanity.” He also offered his predictions for it by 2040. He expressed optimism about its potential to benefit humankind, believing that if developed successfully, it would align with human interests and improve the standard of living. Suleyman explained that it is already capable of world-class medical diagnostics and continues to advance in emotional intelligence and autonomous action. “It’s going to learn to use APIs, send emails, make phone calls, interact with us,” he...
International Business Machines Corp. ( IBM ) announced on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2025, that it will cut thousands of jobs in the fourth quarter as the company pivots toward higher-growth areas such as AI consulting and software. The technology company, which had 270,000 employees at the end of 2024, said the move aligns its workforce with changing market demand, according to The New York Times. “We routinely review our workforce through this lens and at times rebalance accordingly,” a company spokesperson said, per Bloomberg. “In the fourth quarter, we are executing an action that will impact a low single-digit percentage of our global workforce.” For years, IBM has practiced what it calls “workforce rebalancing,” cutting some positions while adding others, The Times reports. The number of workers in the United States is expected to remain steady despite some cuts. Since Arvind Krishna took over as CEO in 2020, IBM has pushed aggressively into high-growth areas such as cloud computing...