💼Can they get away with it🤖

Have you ever applied for a job and been ghosted within minutes? Turns out, you might not be paranoid—just algorithmically rejected.

HR tech giant Workday is now in hot water, facing a collective action lawsuit in California that claims its AI-driven hiring software disproportionately screens out job applicants over 40. The suit, led by Derek Mobley (who applied to over 100 jobs through Workday in seven years with zero offers), says the software quietly rejects anyone it deems too old, too Black or not "able" enough

One example? Mobley submitted a job app at 12:55 AM and got a rejection email by 1:50 AM. Because nothing says “thoughtful evaluation” like getting dismissed before breakfast by a robot.

Now, a judge has given the green light for this to proceed as a collective action (think: class-action’s nerdy cousin), meaning others who’ve had similar AI rejections might join the party.

Workday’s response? Basically: “We don’t hire, our customers do!” Which is like saying you just built the robot but didn’t program it to discriminate—classic plausible deniability vibes.

🔎 So what?
As companies flood HR with AI tools to sort through resume avalanches (often created by other AIs), this lawsuit could become the legal litmus test for whether algorithmic hiring is fair game—or a digital cover for good old-fashioned bias. And while “responsible AI” might be Workday’s tagline, we’re now finding out if responsibility ends at the marketing department.

With over 11,000 organisations using Workday globally and millions of jobs flowing through its platform monthly, this isn't just a niche complaint—it’s a flashing warning light on the ethics dashboard of hiring tech

🔗 You can read the full story via CNN

🧠 TL;DR: HR tech is getting sued for allegedly automating age discrimination. The outcome could redefine how AI is used in hiring—and how much bias gets baked into the bots. Whether you're job-hunting or building tech, this one’s worth watching.

👀The next iPhone?👀 

In the tech world's equivalent of Beyoncé dropping a surprise album, Sir Jonathan Ive (yes, the designer of the iPhone, the iPod, and the Apple Watch) has just sold his mysterious new startup, io, to OpenAI in a $6.5USD billion all stock deal.👀

OpenAI now owns io, Ive’s secretive design lab that was quietly assembling a dream team of ex-Apple engineers in a very “we’re not a startup, we’re a movement” kind of way. The goal? Build new hardware for the AI age. Think: not just a shinier phone, but an entirely new category of gadget you didn’t know you needed (or feared). Rumours have it it isn't smart glasses (which probably isn't music to the ears of the folks at Meta and Snap). Altman calls it “a new computing form factor.” 📲

Jony’s back in the product game after years away, and he says it feels like “everything I’ve learned over 30 years has led to this.” Which is exactly the sort of thing you say when you sell your company for $10B and get to make weird, futuristic objects with your mates again.

💰 The details:

• OpenAI paid $5B in equity, plus the rest through an earlier stake

• The io team (around 55 engineers) joins OpenAI

• First product lands sometime in 2026

• Altman says it’ll be “unlike anything that’s come before,” so expect something between Her’s AI assistant and a Black Mirror prop

• Apple shares dipped 2.3% on the news, possibly because Investors see this as a potential challenge to its hardware dominance

💡 So What?
This is the clearest signal yet that OpenAI wants to own both what you use and how you use it. From prompts to products. The vibes are very “Apple in 2007,” except instead of Steve Jobs in a turtleneck, it’s Sam Altman in a hoodie backed by trillions in compute power and existential philosophy.

Also, for those keeping track: Apple let Jony Ive, the man Steve Jobs called his “spiritual partner,” walk away, and now he’s building hardware for their AI-powered competitor. If that’s not a plot twist, we don’t know what is.

📱 TL;DR:
The man who helped design the modern smartphone is now teaming up with the man who made ChatGPT. They're about to make devices for a post-iPhone world. Apple should probably start sweating.

📎 Full story via The Sydney Morning Herald

👷🏿Builder and bust👷🏿

 Builder.ai — formerly one of the UK’s most hyped GenAI startups, has now filed for insolvency. The Microsoft-backed startup, once valued at over $1.3 billion, is officially in administration. 

🥲 What happened?
Builder.ai promised to make building apps “as easy as ordering a pizza.” Apparently, it was a Margarita without the mozzarella because beneath the shiny AI veneer? Mostly human engineers doing the coding. The Wall Street Journal called them out on that back in 2019, and it seems things never really recovered.

⚠️ Here’s where it gets spicy:

• Internal investigations revealed inflated sales figures.

• US prosecutors requested documents before the collapse.

• A new CEO was appointed in February… but by May, the money was gone.

• Lenders pulled funding from a $50M debt facility, and Just like that, there was no money in the bank

According to Cruxy CEO Carrie Osman, the real villain here might be “FOMO investing.” In the AI gold rush post-ChatGPT, investors piled into anything that mentioned “machine learning” without checking if the maths added up. Builder is now a warning shot across the VC bow: unicorn status doesn’t mean unbreakable🤑

📉 So what?
The fall of Builder.ai is a flashing neon sign for investors, founders, and technologists alike: AI won’t save your startup if your business fundamentals are broken. It also adds to a growing roster of “zombiecorns” — overhyped startups with weak revenue models. (Thanks, SVB, for the term.)

🧠 Bonus irony:
Microsoft — one of Builder.ai’s biggest backers — just told the world that 30% of their code is written by AI. Judging by GitHub threads riddled with Copilot disasters, some of that code might need a human after all.

🔍 TL;DR:
Builder.ai is the Theranos of GenAI app development. Just with fewer blood tests and more dodgy revenue projections. The next time someone says “AI will replace junior devs,” just remember: it couldn’t even replace Builder’s sales team.

📎 Sources: TechCrunch, Sifted, The Register, The Next Web

🤳🏾What's coming next🤖

Oh Google, you really know how to make a two-hour keynote feel like a TED Talk, a sales pitch, a Black Mirror episode, and a Pokémon speedrun all at once😅

Yes, that’s right – Google’s AI, Gemini, apparently beat Pokémon Blue. Because what better way to showcase the future of artificial general intelligence than to remind us it can outplay a Game Boy from 1996?😬

Let’s dive into the AI avalanche that was Google I/O 2025, aka “How Many Times Can Sundar Say ‘Gemini’ in One Sitting?”😂

💰 Gemini Ultra: For When You Want to Spend Rent on AI

Google unveiled Gemini Ultra, their platinum, diamond, vibranium-tier AI plan — for a casual $249.99/month. You get “Deep Think,” Veo 3 (the AI that dreams in 4K cinema), and Imagen 4 (for your photorealistic AI fur and water droplets needs).

Yes, for the price of an actual software engineer’s therapy session, you too can chat with a souped-up chatbot and generate a video of yourself wearing a silk kaftan while sipping AI-generated matcha.

🔍 AI Mode in Search: Now With More Homework Energy

Search is dead, long live Search. Google’s AI Mode lets you ask long, complicated questions and it’ll “fan out” your query across the internet, probably somewhat “check its work,” and return a glorified AI-generated blog post.

Coming soon: Personal Context Mode — where your Google Search knows what you want before you do. Creepy? Efficient? Yes.

🛍️ AI Shopping:

Using Shopping Graph and virtual try-on, you can now upload your photo and see yourself in outfits you haven’t bought yet. Is this the future of fashion? Or just Black Mirror’s “Nosedive” in chiffon?

Meanwhile, your AI agent will stalk that dress’s price drop like it’s 2010 Groupon. All you have to do is exist, and Google will shop for you.

🎥 Veo 3 + Flow: AI is Coming for Hollywood

Veo 3 can now generate full video scenes with music, voiceovers, and vibes. Combine that with Flow, Google’s AI editing suite, and you’ve got a creator toolset that’s either a TikTok dream or the death knell for indie video editors. Either way, we see you, Trump on the other hand may have to work to tariff this given he was concerned about Hollwoods vitality 

🤖 Project Astra, Mariner, and Jules:

Yes, Google named their AI agents like Marvel side characters.

• Astra sees the world in real-time.

• Mariner buys your baseball tickets so you don’t have to.

• Jules fixes your broken code and maybe your broken heart.

Basically, this is Google’s answer to Siri, Alexa and Clippy, on speed.

🛠️ Android Studio + Stitch: AI for Developers (and Wannabes)

Dev tools now come with “Journeys,” “Agent Mode,” and Stitch, which can design your app UI from a napkin sketch. If you're a junior dev trying to compete with AI that can debug code and file pull requests in its sleep — we see you. We’re sorry.

👓 Android XR: Google Tries AR Again

Rising from the ashes of Google Glass is Android XR. It powers everything from immersive headsets to smartglasses. Samsung, Qualcomm, and Warby Parker are in — because nothing says “cutting-edge” like luxury eyewear that also checks your email.

Check out everything google announced here

💡 So What?

Between the $250/month price tag, Pokémon flexes, and AI that now shops for you and answers your emails, Google’s making it clear: we’re not in Kansas anymore. We’re in Gemini’s world — and it charges a subscription.

We’ll be watching how this shapes developer talent, inclusive design, and who gets left out as these tools redefine who builds what next. Because as AI gets smarter, access gets pricier — and we all know whose ideas usually get cut when the budget tightens.

So, cheers to the future of AI. It looks a lot like the past — just with better lighting and a Google watermark.

💸BYD on the march💸

Tesla’s having a rough one on this side of  the pond — sales in Europe and the UK have nearly halved (yes, halved) year-on-year, even with a shiny new Model Y rollout. Meanwhile, Chinese rival BYD is casually pulling a Fast & Furious move, boosting EU registrations by 59% despite tariffs💸

It’s not just the EV market wobbling — hybrids are on the up (31% growth), while petrol and diesel cars continue their slow extinction. But the real tea? Tesla’s drop isn’t just about market trends — it might have more to do with Elon’s political cosplay as Trump’s favourite hype man. Turns out European consumers aren’t vibing with Space Karen’s stateside antics.🚀

Read more in tech crunch here

💡 So What?

If Musk wanted to remind Europe that buying Teslas is optional, mission accomplished. It’s also a sign that brand politics — especially across borders — now hit harder than product updates.

📈 The tools behind the tech📉

📦Product📦

• Principals of good database design

📏Design📏 

• The glitch gallery

👩🏿‍💻Code👩🏿‍💻

• The official repository of Mozilla's Firefox web browser

🏢The business behind the tech🏢

• Templates for tech

Canva

Design company Canva are launching Rise, specifically for start ups and scale ups. It's designed to help ambitious high-growth companies rise through smarter branding, engaging content and sharper communication. All sessions will be hosted in our London office, in Shoreditch. 

Here is the link as you are one of the first to know

Canva

Ladies Who Launch–the global non-profit focused on helping women and non-binary entrepreneurs thrive–is hosting an event on the evening of 12th June 2025 titled Funded and Fearless: AI-Powered Marketing and Fundraising for Small Business. The goal of Funded and Fearless is to help attendees better understand the funding landscape available to them in the UK, and also help demystify and reduce fear around using AI-enabled technology. 

In addition, attendees will:

• Hear from an inspiring business operators, including Mireia Llusia-Lindh, Founder of DeMellier of London, and Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI

• Learn from financial and business industry experts, including Mary McKenna of Awaken Angels, and Emma Jones, CBE of Enterprise Nation

• Experience live product training demos from OpenAI and Canva

• Connect with fellow founders and small business owners over delicious food and drinks after the core programming

The event is free to attend, as Ladies Who Launch believes that access to finances should never be a barrier to education. Find more details, and register directly at: https://bit.ly/FundedandFearless.

HSBC opportunities 

HSBC is partnering with Project Nemo to launch a training programme designed to embed accessibility into every stage of product development, from UX to QA and everything in between.

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all webinar. It’s role-based, hands-on, and led by digital accessibility experts who understand your day-to-day.

Whether you’re a web developer, content author, QA tester, or product manager, you’ll leave with practical skills to build better, more inclusive digital experiences, without the guesswork.

Find out more about each of the sessions and sign up here: https://grp.hsbc/6048NpEOE

Build agentic AI

Register for Google Cloud's Startup School: Agentic AI, where industry leaders and Google Cloud experts lead virtual classes designed to help startups adapt and scale AI agents across their organizations. 

Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect:

Unlock Your Potential – Discover why agents are transformative, their core capabilities, and why there’s never a better time to utilize them

Build Smarter with AI – Learn how to implement our pre-trained APIs and build your own ML models.

Get Expert Support - Receive guidance from our Google Cloud and AI experts to help you scale.

Connect & Collaborate - Network with industry leaders in our Partner Ecosystem and explore even more AI 

Register and join the sessions, starting June 10th!

🎓Depop roles🎓

Depop have loads of roles that could interest both tech and non tech

💼Finance Business Partner

❤️Senior DEI Manager

🛍️Marketing & Audience Researcher

📲Engineering Managers both in Platforms or Android

🤖Data science

💻Web Engineers

🙌🏾Loads of developer roles

MAKE SURE IN the disclosures you flag you came through Colorintech so the team know who you are!

Check out the below for London roles

https://depopcareers.com/careers?location=Depop+-+London

😃What we are consuming😃

💻 Ben Evan's AI eats the world deck

💰Trump's latest tarrif

🛍️Fake discounts on SHEIN