Moses West wants clean water to be accessible to all. Solving An Issue Impacting Billions The U.S. Army veteran and engineer has used technology to develop an Atmospheric Water Generator that turns air into clean water. This groundbreaking invention has the potential to address the needs of more than a billion people who currently do not have clean water. Forbes reports that while water covers 70% of our planet, only 3% is fresh, and the majority of this fresh water — two-thirds — is held in frozen glaciers. It also highlights that 1.1 billion people lack water access, 2.7 billion struggle to find clean water at least one month each year, and 2.4 billion face issues with insufficient sanitation. Despite these statistics, West is looking to change these outcomes through his Atmospheric Water Generator. “The one crisis that everyone says, ‘We’re going to run out of water,’ and I’m sitting here saying, ‘No you’re not. You’re walking around in it every day. T rillions of gallons of it,...

Being funny pays. Just look to TikToker DeMarcus Shawn as confirmation. Beginnings Growing up on the outskirts of Chicago, IL, he recalls always being funny, often creating skits or playfully imitating his family members. His humor translated well to the camera, and he would toss around various skit ideas with his two older brothers. With the rise of social media, leaning into it was natural for Shawn. Ultimately, he landed on TikTok as his breeding ground for content though initially his Instagram was geared towards his creative interests. @artbydemarcusshawn #fyp ♬ original sound – DemarcusShawn “I grew up doing music and learning how to sing and photography. I’m a guy that’s heavy on drawing and painting,” he told AFROTECH™. “ Those are my hobbies that I like to do. Outside of that, when I came into TikTok, it was more of what I’ve been doing with my siblings, but on a larger front.” Full-Time Content Creation Shawn was working on building his online presence while also employed...

Allyiah Gainer is making a bag from YouTube alone. From An HBCU Student To YouTuber Gainer’s rise as a content creator and beauty guru dates back to 2015. She was briefly a student at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, FL, and intended to pursue a career in pharmacy. Her motivation for attending school was driven by her father, and after they had a falling out she dropped out of school, as shared during the “Big Boss Energy” podcast with Kayla Burke. However, Gainer remained enrolled to make use of her dorm and meals, which had already been covered under her full-ride scholarship. “I needed somewhere to live, right? I couldn’t just peace out,” Gainer explained on the podcast.   Her new plan was to fulfill her dreams of becoming a makeup artist, and she secured a part-time job at a MAC store located at a nearby local mall, which had been her highest-paying job at the time. ESSENCE reported she was also able to land her own clients who were her former classmates. When she realized...

Former Yale University students are making it easier to spot counterfeit drugs. Per TechCrunch, Adebayo Alonge, Amy Kao and Wei Lui launched healthcare startup RxAll in 2016. The inception of the company was in response to their own experience with counterfeit drugs. For Alonge, it was nearly fatal after he took a medicine that contained a dangerous amount of diazepam, while Kao’s experience left her hospitalized. “I survived a 21-day coma in Nigeria 15 years ago. My co-founder, Amy, was hospitalized in Thailand after taking counterfeit medicine. And Wei lost a family member due to contaminated drugs,” Alonge told TechCrunch. While students they were able to pick each other’s brains during a research and development project and found further information to validate their concerns. “100,000 Africans die from this problem every year. One million people die across the world from this problem,” Alonge mentioned . This led to RxAll’s inaugural product RxScanner, a device powered by...

It’s crucial for Black professionals to not just follow technological advancements but to drive them. Jeff Nelson, co-founder and chief operating officer (COO) of Blavity Inc., embodies this approach. With over 10 years of pioneering work at the company, now reaching millions of users each month, he has contributed significantly to its technology and software development. As the former chief technology officer, he was responsible for development, data analytics, and technical infrastructure, his LinkedIn mentions. In 2022, Nelson stepped into the role of COO, tasked with responsibilities centering data, product, engineering, and audience development, as well as furthering the support for Black professionals through AFROTECH™ and Talent Infusion, which is designed to connect top diverse candidates with employers. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Talent Infusion (@talent.infusion) AFROTECH™ AI Hackathon With the upcoming AFROTECH™ Conference set to return on Nov. 13-16,...

Method Man has hesitations around the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). During an interview on Hot97, the rap artist had several reasons for his heart posture toward the technology. One of his reasons include Drake’s single “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which was a shot at Compton’s Kendrick Lamar. It also featured AI-generated audio using the lyrics of the late Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg. “Kendrick we need ya, the West Coast savior/Engraving your name in some Hip-Hop history/If you deal with this viciously … Call him a b-tch for me/Talk about him liking young girls as a gift for me,” a AI-generated Tupac Shakur lyric read at the song’s intro, per Rolling Stone. The song was later removed by Drake after Shakur’s estate stated they were willing to move forward with legal action, per NBC News. Method Man expresses the song is one of the reasons he is raising an eyebrow toward AI. He also mentions challenges around intellectual property (IP) and streaming, which he says complicate...

Rolanda Brandon has filed a lawsuit due to North Carolina’s NIL restrictions. She is the mother of Faizon Brandon, a quarterback at Grimsley High School and the nationa’s top-ranked recruit in the 2026 class, according to ABC11. The high school player intends to play for the University of Tennessee upon graduating in the fall of 2025, which he affirmed through a verbal commitment, per CBS Sports. The journey toward higher learning is often met with great excitement for athletes and name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals have further energized the sports arena for both college and some high school students. However, this may not have been the case for Faizon. The Athletic Narrative states that while high school students can engage in NIL deals, the eligibility is subject to state laws and the specific rules of their schools or sports teams. Rolanda is now suing the state of North Carolina due to the barriers around NIL deals, The Charlotte Observer reports. This has prevented Faizon...

Sony’s agreement with Michael Jackson’s estate will remain intact despite pushback. As AFROTECH™ previously mentioned, Sony Music Group reportedly closed a sale related to the late “Rock With You” singer’s legendary catalog, which encompassed half of his publishing and recorded masters catalog. In total, the assets were worth between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion. Sony Music Group reportedly paid at least $600 million in the deal to claim its portion of the stake in Michael’s assets. However, there was allegedly some pushback surrounding the deal from his mother, Katherine Jackson. Billboard reports that she attempted to stop the deal. This was because his executors, John Branca and John McClain, had appeared to privately go to Judge Mitchell Beckloff to get the green light for the deal. Katherine argued that it would “violate Michael’s wishes” and that the catalog’s valuation would still rise if the estate maintained its ownership. Beckloff turned down the notion in April 2023 and...

Khalifa Aminu, at 18 years old, is reportedly behind a groundbreaking invention. It all started in Aminu’s childhood when he grew interested in building things after watching movies, he explained to DailyNews24 TV. That led him to build his first project, a canoe, and it opened his eyes to building intentionally to help out his community. Born in Kano, Nigeria, he cites other works, including a radio station, a bomb detector, and an automatic water spray for farmers. “All these inventions were made by me alone, without any support or materials provided for mass production,” Aminu told the outlet. Aminu’s next invention is now sensory glasses, which can help the visually impaired navigate their steps safely and unassisted. Infrared sensors attached to the glasses are able to detect approaching objects, according a video shared on TikTok by The 77 Percent. “I grew up in an area where there’s visually impaired people, and I understand what they’re going through. This is why I began the...

Well-known for her career in entertainment, Malinda Williams is now dedicating time to uplifting women in technology. The Pivot Many may recognize Malinda Williams for her work as an actress, which includes credits in shows such as “The Cosby Show,” “Sister, Sister,” “Moesha,” and films like “Soul Food” and “The Wood.” She had been booking gigs for more than 30 years, yet she encountered a period of stagnation during which work became scarce. Money management had always been easy for her, which was helpful when it was time to stretch her earnings, Williams shared in an interview with AFROTECH™ . Eventually, she had to move to New Jersey and ventured into a “difficult” period, which also reignited a new area of interest. “I set out on a continuation of my spirit spiritual journey, but I also went to the bookstore, and that’s where I find a lot of my spiritual material, and a book called ‘HTML For Dummies’ fell off the shelves,” she told AFROTECH™. “I had tinkered around a little bit...

A class action lawsuit continues to loom over Shaquille O’Neal. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, he was named in a class-action lawsuit filed against the Astrals Project, which he created alongside Music Manager Brian Bayati, who serves as the CEO, and his son Myles O’Neal, who is the head of investor relations. They launched to the public the “Shaq Signature Pass,” a non-fungible token (NFT) series that was labeled as the “first consumable NFT of its kind, and the signing technology is one that we think will have wide-ranging applications.” Coindesk mentions Astrals consisted of 10,000 NFT 3D avatars and a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) for “incubating innovative projects” with the Galaxy token serving as the governance token. In a class action filed in Florida federal court in 2023, it stated the project was in violation of securities law as the company sold unregistered Astrals tokens, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Investor Daniel Harper, who allegedly lost...

Former Division 1 track-and-field athlete Jes Christian is leveraging her background to create cutting-edge footwear for today’s athletes. Christian is behind the sports footwear company Hypsole, created thanks to her time as a track star at the University of Notre Dame. She remembers being “hyper-aware” of both the advantages and shortcomings of her shoes’ performance while running. “I understood the purpose of each shoe, how they were different, how they impacted my movements, and how they helped me perform [or didn’t],” she told AFROTECH™. “I had a shoe for almost everything — so where performance was missing was more apparent to me than it might’ve been for a non-track athlete — and it was missing the minute I stepped off the field.” She continued, “The on-field/off-field dance is also amplified in track because track meets can last all day and multiple days. Track athletes are constantly moving on and off the field, changing footwear, and adjusting to a dynamic meet schedule....

If you’ve been keeping up with the news in basketball lately, you’re likely familiar with WNBA player Angel Reese. The star Chicago Sky player recently made headlines for being the first ever woman in professional basketball to record a double-double in ten consecutive games during a single season. Despite her excellent performance on the court, Reese has been the subject of much ire. The backlash stems from Reese’s brave ability to speak out against the massive wage gap between WNBA players and their male counterparts. According to Distractify , Angel Reese currently has a net worth of just under $2 million. While this is certainly an impressive figure, particularly for a woman of only 22 years of age, it pales in comparison to the finances of most male NBA players . During a recent post-game interview, Reese spoke on her success in her chosen field. Per Sports Illustrated , she explained, “I’m a dog. You can’t teach that. I’m gonna go out and do whatever it takes to win every...

Amazon has come under harsh scrutiny for its treatment of employees in recent years, from accusations of systemically shortchanging paychecks to driving employee injuries by urging them to focus more on speed than safety. It might not be a dream career path for the average American, but for consumers, the multi-purpose company is driven by efficient customer service. They’ve mastered the art of promptly bringing packages to your door, but now, Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology is revolutionizing the shopping world . Its capabilities are undeniably impressive, although not everyone is ready for the takeover of artificial intelligence. What Is Just Walk Out Technology? The first store to offer the Just Walk Out experience was an Amazon Go convenience store in Seattle in 2018; now, over 100 third-party retailers across the country allow people to grab their items and leave without waiting in a line or partaking in a transaction. “ They hated standing in lines in 1924, they hate...

T-Pain makes a lot of money in a sector outside of music. Looking at the larger picture has worked out greatly for T-Pain , who has, at times, received the short end in his career. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, his first deal landed him a $40 million advance; however, the label had the benefit of a 15/85 split. At one point, the artist even faced financial troubles that were so bleak he went broke. “Now I know what the high end is and what the low end is,” he said, according to Business Insider. “I’ve been mega-rich, I’ve been super broke, right in the middle of thinking I was mega-rich, and then got rich again, and you know, learned how to really give a sh-t about money.” Over the years, T-Pain has appeared to be in better financial standing, partly due to his foray into the gaming industry. As AFROTECH™ previously mentioned, the “Buy U a Drank” artist developed an interest in streaming. He combined gaming and music , which landed him a partnership with the interactive...