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Category: DEI

Here are all the tech companies rolling back DEI or still committed to it — so far

Companies around America have started cutting DEI programs and eliminating DEI commitments from public documents in response to legal and political threats from the Trump administration. Just a few weeks ago, Attorney General Pam Bondi instructed the Department of Justice to “investigate, eliminate, and penalize,” DEI programs deemed illegal in private sector companies that receive…

Publishing platform Medium says it’s sticking with DEI

Publishing platform Medium says it’s still committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), even as many other U.S. tech companies have scaled back their efforts in this space to appease the Trump administration. In a blog post published on Monday, Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine backed the company’s diverse community, saying that businesses shouldn’t have to…

Google scrubs mentions of ‘diversity’ and ‘equity’ from responsible AI team webpage

Google has quietly updated the webpage for its Responsible AI and Human Centered Technology (RAI-HCT) team, the team charged with conducting research into AI safety, fairness, and explainability, to scrub mentions of “diversity” and “equity.” A previous version of the page used language such as “marginalized communities,” “diverse,” “underrepresented groups,” and “equity” to describe the…

Google removes ‘underrepresented’ language from its grant website

Just weeks after Google said it would review its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the Google for Startups Founders Fund webpage is peppered with changes. Most notably Google is now using past tense to describe all of its fund programs for underrepresented founders.  This is a change that took place after December, according to the internet…

OpenAI launches GPT-4.5, its largest model to date

Welcome back to Week in Review. This week we’re diving into OpenAI’s newest, biggest model GPT-4.5, Microsoft pulling the plug on Skype, how Anthropic used Pokémon Red to train its Claude 3.7 Sonnet model, the unexpected return of Fyre Festival, and more! Let’s get into it. OpenAI announced the launch of GPT-4.5, the much-anticipated AI…

Here are all the tech companies rolling back DEI or still committed to it — so far

Companies around America have started cutting DEI programs and eliminating DEI commitments from public documents in response to legal and political threats from the Trump administration. Just a few weeks ago, Attorney General Pam Bondi instructed the Department of Justice to “investigate, eliminate, and penalize,” DEI programs deemed illegal in private sector companies that receive…

Apple shareholders vote down anti-DEI proposal

Apple shareholders rejected an anti-DEI proposal at its investor meeting Tuesday. The proposal was brought by a conservative group called the National Center for Public Policy Research (NPPR). It asked Apple to end its DEI activities. Boards typically ask shareholders to reject shareholder proposals, and this was one of four such shareholder proposals. This proposal…

Cherryrock Capital raises new $172M fund from all-star investors to back diverse founders

Cherryrock Capital, founded by ex-TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot, announced Wednesday the closing of its $172 million Fund I with an all-star limited partner list that includes JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, MassMutual, Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures, Reid Hoffman, Mellody Hobson, and Sheryl Sandberg.  Brown-Philpot told Bloomberg that the fund actually closed in January.  The firm launched…

Mark Zuckerberg’s charity U-turns, ends DEI efforts 

Mark Zuckerberg’s charity has eliminated its DEI programs and efforts just weeks after assuring staff it would continue supporting DEI efforts, the Guardian reports.  The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), co-founded by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, will end internal DEI programs and no longer provide “social advocacy funding,” which provided grants for racial equity and…

OpenAI scrubs diversity commitment web page from its site

OpenAI has eliminated a page on its website that used to express its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The URL “https://openai.com/commitment-to-dei/” now redirects to “https://openai.com/building-dynamic-teams/,” a page that talks about people with “different backgrounds” with no use of the word diversity. The previous page stated that the company’s “investment in diversity, equity and inclusion”…

Ulu Ventures sticks to its diversity strategy, raises $208M

While large corporations like Google and Meta curbing their DEI programs, Ulu Ventures, which just raised a fourth $208 million fund, doesn’t plan to change its strategy of investing in diverse founders, the firm told the Wall Street Journal. Co-founded by Miriam Riviera, a Latina and former vice president and deputy general counsel at Google,…

Google says it removed cultural events from its calender last year

Google has removed events such as Black History Month and Pride Month from being listed on the calendar by default.  Other events that were removed from the default calendar include Jewish Heritage, Indigenous People Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Hispanic Heritage Month.  Google spokesperson Madison Cushman Veld confirmed the changes to TechCrunch, saying that in…

Amazon deletes ‘inclusion and diversity’ language in latest filing

Amazon is the latest tech company to remove references to “inclusion and diversity” from its 10-K report. The filing has removed reference to diversity and inclusion as it pertains to the workplace. In its 2023 10-K form, the company had a sentence that read “As we strive to be Earth’s best employer, we focus on investment and…

Pinterest lists DEI attacks as possible business risk in latest filing

Pinterest listed the latest attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion as a possible business risk in its latest 10-K filing.  The company wrote in its filing to investors that if its efforts around DEI “are perceived as insufficient or overdone,” then it “may not be able to attract and retain talent” and that the company…

Early Meta employee sues for sexual harassment, gender discrimination  

One of Meta’s earliest employees is suing the company for sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and retaliation, according to a lawsuit filed this week in the state of Washington. Kelly Stonelake, who spent 15 years at the company and rose to the rank of director, alleges in the lawsuit she faced a cycle of gender-based discrimination…

Mark Zuckerberg’s charity insists its not abandoning its DEI efforts

Mark Zuckerberg’s charity has told its employees it will remain committed to DEI even as Meta eliminates its DEI programs, The Guardian reports.  Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), founded and co-led by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, reassured its employees after many began expressing concerns about recent changes at Meta as the company scales back…

Meta eliminates DEI programs

Axios reports that Meta is eliminating its biggest DEI efforts, effective immediately, including ones that focused on hiring a diverse workforce, training, and sourcing supplies from diverse-owned companies. Its DEI department will also be eliminated.   In a memo leaked to the outlet, Meta said it was making these changes because the “legal and policy landscape…