Meta releases a data set to probe computer vision models for biases
Continuing on its open source tear, Meta today released a new AI benchmark, FACET, designed to evaluate the “fairness” of AI models that classify and detect things in photos and videos, including people. Made up of 32,000 images containing 50,000 people labeled by human annotators, FACET — a tortured acronym
Read moreAI-powered BeFake is a real app, not a BeReal parody…and it has $3M in funding
BeFake, a social networking app that combines concepts from popular Gen Z app BeReal along with AI technology has netted itself $3 million in seed funding to create an AI-augmented social network. The app’s name, a clear reference to BeReal’s authentic photo sharing among friends, is meant to suggest it
Read moreLEAP Fund puts $1M into African, Latin America e-mobility projects
The LEAP Fund has chosen three projects in Africa and four in Latin America that focus on e-mobility to fund. These selected initiatives will receive funding grants totaling a significant amount of US $1.05 million. The primary objective of the fund is to offer support to organizations situated in emerging
Read moreThreads starts testing search feature in Australia and New Zealand
Threads launched one of the most anticipated features, a web version of the platform, last week. Now, Meta is testing another highly demanded feature for the social network — searching for posts. At the moment, users can only search for usernames on Threads. However, the company is working on bringing
Read moreSatgana appoints Anil Maguru as partner to back climate-tech startups in Europe, Africa
Europe-based climate-tech VC Satgana has appointed Anil Maguru, formerly an investment director at the firm, as its newest partner. Satgana, which emerged out of stealth last year, invests in climate startups in Europe and Africa. Maguru joined the VC firm at inception three years ago, starting as an analyst. At
Read moreBridging Connectivity Gaps in Africa with FWA Solutions
Addressing the Global Digital Divide The global digital divide persists, with around 1 billion households without fixed broadband, and projections indicating that approximately 30% of households worldwide may still lack broadband connectivity by 2028, according to an Ericsson analysis. At the same time, 3GPP technologies, including LTE and 5G, are
Read moreNutun Launches Nutun Empowered Women Programme (NEW)
Global Business Services company Nutun has announced the launch of the Nutun Empowerment Women (NEW) Programme, designed to accelerate the careers of female employees across the organization. Introduced at a special employee event by Dineo Sekwele, Nutun’s Group HR Executive, the initiative is driven by Nutun’s workforce demographic, with 75%
Read moreVodacom Signs Virtual Wheeling Agreement with Eskom to Solve Energy Crisis
Vodacom and Eskom signed a Virtual Wheeling agreement today, aiming to alleviate South Africa’s energy crisis. This innovation aligns with Vodacom’s goal of sourcing all electricity from renewables by 2025. This agreement allows Vodacom to proceed with the next phase: securing Independent Power Producers (IPPs) under similar terms as with
Read moreOpenAI-backed language learning app Speak raises $16M to expand to the U.S.
Speak, an English language learning platform backed by OpenAI’s startup investment fund, the OpenAI Startup Fund, today announced that it raised $16 million in a Series B-2 funding round led by angel investor Lachy Groom. The co-founders of Dropbox, Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, also participated in Speak’s tranche, which
Read moreMartian Lawyers Club raises $2.2M for AI-based game personalization tech
The Martian Lawyers Club (MLC) wants to take game personalization to the next level with the help of generative AI. While there are plenty of companies that focus on using AI to generate game assets, MLC is taking a decidedly different approach by focusing less on content and more on
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