The Tech Jawn: Black Tech Enthusiasts Covering The Week's Tech News And How Tech Affects Black Culture

It’s Black History Month and, for at least the second year in a row, Apple is highlighting black voices throughout the month of February. Meta might want to change some of its policies and controls in the Metaverse as it relates to sexual harassment. A 43-year-old British woman claims she was virtually groped by a gang of male avatars within a minute of logging in.Flexible Work from Anywhere policies might be a key to fixing Silicon Valley’s diversity problems.And Spotify might have a Joe Rogan problem as Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legends pull their catalogs from the platform because of Covid misinformation promoted on his show.Link to Show Notes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We kick this episode of The Tech Jawn off with a tech story or two, but, we’ve got a special guest interview for you this week.We chop it up with Shawn Gunn, co-founder and CEO PLLAY, an Artificial Intelligence-driven wagering and data analytics platform for video gamers. Shawn has also played a key role in helping multiple companies successfully exit, having raised over $50 million in venture funding and creating over $1 billion in exit value for investors.We cover everything from what it’s like starting a tech company with black and female founders to how venture capital is not always the route startups should look to when getting off the ground. Shawn gives an overview PLLAY and how his company is changing the game wagering in e-sports, and he leaves us with his view of where the metaverse is headed.Link to book Shawn mentioned during the interview: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson Amazon Affiliate Link Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There is a new game word game taking the internet by storm.  It’s called Wordle, It’s completely free, and, by design, it’s not a time suck.Is the next wave of watching sports a courtside VR experience?  With the Oculus Quest 2, you may be able to “be at the game” without actually being at the game.Rebundle, a black-owned, women-founded, haircare startup that creates plant-based hair extensions gets $1.4 million in pre-seed venture funding.  And, have NFTs jumped the shark?  We’ve got three different opinions from  3 different voices and we’re all probably kind of right.Link to our Show Notes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Google is concerned that Apple allows iMessage users to bully Android users.  If true Google is probably just as much to blame.Timnit Gebru launches the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute to focus on how bias in Artificial Intelligence harms marginalized groups.Due to the pandemic CES this year still wasn’t the CES of old, but, that didn’t stop the auto manufacturers from showing out.And in our TTJ Spotlight, we showcase another hidden figure that was mathing the heck out of stuff for the US military.Follow The Tech Jawn on Twitter, Instagram, FacebookShow Notes: Click here... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The cast of The Tech Jawn is just coming back from our holiday hiatus but we wanted to present you with something special before we get back to live shows in the second week of January. Back in episode 8, we had the honor of interviewing Professor Tonya M. Evans, Forbe’s 50 Over 50 member, Faculty at Penn State Dickinson Law, host of the Tech Intersect podcast, and blockchain and cryptocurrency expert. We still get Tweets, IG comments, text messages, phone calls, etc. from folk asking about this episode and what many of them don’t know is that they only heard about half of the full interview.  Patreon members of The Tech Jawn get pre and post-show bonus content by way of a live stream and, after the podcast ended, Professor Evans continued to drop gems about the world of cryptocurrency in what we are calling The Aftershow.We are bringing you the full interview so, get ready and buckle up because we jump right into just over an hour of awesomeness with Professor Tonya M. Evans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

African Americans are being arrested, charged, and held on faulty ID matches.Twitter favors faces with lighter skin tones… Even “Black Twitter”Autonomous vehicles even be out here pedestrian bowling with kinfolk. Facial recognition, Artificial Intelligence, and algorithms in general really ain't feeling us, and, in the first episode of The Tech Jawn, we’re going to discuss why. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

YouTube TV almost lost a customer before working things out with Disney to bring ABC, ESPN, and other channels back to the platform.Many security analysts are saying that the Log4j exploit that has been dominating tech news for the last week may be the biggest cyber security vulnerability ever. If it’s not the biggest, it’s definitely up there.If you are the designated tech support specialist for your extended family we’ve got a list of tech tasks you probably should complete when you see your kinfolk over the holidays.And although Chrismas is just a few days away we’ve got some last-minute tech stocking stuffers that you still may have time to get.We’ve got all this and more in episode 15 of The Tech Jawn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amazon had a major outage last week disrupting services for companies all across the US. Even The Tech Jawn was affected. Would you were a mask that glows if it detects Covid?  The Tech Jawn crew probably would but we’d feel some kind of way about it.Apple Watch Owners file a class action lawsuit for expanding batteries that crack the screen. Tech Life Steph has fist hand knowledge of the issue. And black audiences are cutting the cord at an alarming rate. The usually loyal cable and satellite TV customer base has dwindled 25% in less than 4 years.We’ve got all this and more in episode 14 of the Tech Jawn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The Tech Jawn we talk about Apple’s anti-sexting tool and if not notifying parents is the right call?Is Black Twitter The New Green Book? We know you can get the tea but is it also keeping us safe out here in these streets.What do you think about a DEI company that uses digital blackface to make Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion videos? Yeah, we thought that too.And is getting paid for your data the new wave. It probably should be, but, it’s, for real though, going to take a minute.We’ve got all this and more in episode 13 of the Tech Jawn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Black Friday Shopping was Mid, Meh, and just a bit down this year but we did get to talk tech to the elders over the holiday.Buying real estate together in groups with friends, family, and even a few strangers may have gotten just a bit easier.The NNPA and Digital Mind State team up to bring Tech This Out News to a network of over 230 black-owned newspapers that engage an audience of 43 million people per week.And, is the payday for black creators finally here?We’ve got all this and more in episode 12 of The Tech Jawn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.