🪦DEI dies pt1🪦

So this week we saw a piece of big news on DEI which we have to give coverage here.

We'll start with Meta, which announced a range of DEI pull backs followed by a media tour by Mark Zuckerberg. It comes ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration.

Meta's vice president of human resources, Janelle Gale, told Meta employees that the shift was due to "legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing" noting that, "The term 'DEI' has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others."

The 5 big changes outlined and covered excellently by Axios were;

• Cutting Meta's DEI team: Meta will no longer have a team focused on DEI. Maxine Williams, the company's chief diversity officer, is taking on a new role at Meta, focused on accessibility and engagement, Gale wrote. (One of our predictions from last week was right then 😅)

• Ending equity and inclusion programs: Meta will instead build programs "that focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background," Gale said.

• Sunsetting supplier diversity efforts: Meta will end efforts to source business suppliers from diverse-owned businesses. Moving forward, the company will "focus our efforts on supporting small and medium-sized businesses that power much of our economy," Gale wrote.

• Ending the "Diverse Slate Approach" to hiring: While Meta will continue to source candidates from different backgrounds, it will no longer use the diverse-slate hiring approach, which ensures a diverse pool of candidates is considered for every open position. "We believe there are other ways to build an industry-leading workforce and leverage teams made up of world-class people from all types of backgrounds," Gale wrote.

• Ending representation goals: Having representation goals, "can create the impression that decisions are being made based on race or gender," Gale wrote. "While this has never been our practice, we want to eliminate any impression of it," she said. She noted the company, "previously ended representation goals for women and ethnic minorities."

So here's the bit you're all waiting for, the Colorinech Opinion... Well we're disappointed of course but saw it coming.

Ultimately the Trump election had big consequences (see below) and Meta are responding to them. We do think that some of these will be detrimental to Meta and society as a whole. Where there are embers of hope, we recognise that building programs "apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all" aligns with well the work we've been doing from day one with the teams there. You can't have products which mitigate bias for everyone without recognising how it impacts them and doing things about it. We will always play a role there and some believe it isn't going away at all as a result🤔

We wont butter this up, this is broadly bad for anyone from an underrepresented group and that means Women or trans folks, the disabled, Ethnic minorities, Religious minorities, those with children and those who don't typically identify as hetrosexuals et al.

Zuck doesn't necessarily think so or mind perhaps so you can hear a longer form discussion with him on the Joe Rogan podcast (make of that what you will). Clearly some of his employees disagree with one reaction internally stating “If you don’t stand by your principles when things get difficult, they aren’t values. They’re hobbies,” that got a reaction from more than 600 colleagues.

How does this impact Colorintech? Well we are savvy about what we do so we're optimistic so lets see but you'll hear first here

🪦But does DEI die?🪦

So it wasn't just Meta at it, we've seen Microsoft make moves which we've cover but Amazon came out of the woodwork (probably sensing Meta's taking the lead on it) with its own DEI pull back too with it saying it was "winding down outdated programs and materials” related to representation and inclusion, aiming to complete the process by the end of 2024.

Candi Castleberry, Amazon’s VP of inclusive experiences and technology, said the company was in the process of “winding down outdated programs and materials” as part of a broader review of hundreds of initiatives.

“Rather than have individual groups build programs, we are focusing on programs with proven outcomes — and we also aim to foster a more truly inclusive culture,” 

You can read more on CNBC here

But we did see something from Apple which bucked the trend and noted as it's board of directors recommended investors vote against a shareholder proposal to abolish the company's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, according to a proxy filing from the company.

Apple said the proposal “inappropriately attempts to restrict” and “micromanage” company operations and policies. The company also said it has a “well-established compliance program,” and its board actively manages business and legal conduct to ensure it complies with laws in multiple jurisdictions.

So not all doom and gloom for big tech as it sets the scene for more Apple v Meta to come 

🗞Did you see our feature🗞

Check out our coverage in CNBC covering how Black British entrepreneurs find new ways to land funding as diversity efforts are scrapped. Some folks would have you believe they don't get funding because they're not good enough and therefore perhaps all black people aren't because the world is functioning as some highly functioning meriotracy👀 

Well for a meritocracy to work, starting conditions need to be equal and opportunities distributed equitably.  

Our co founder Ashleigh was quoted saying 

"If we think about the whole concept of growing Britain and making ourselves a more productive country, then we can’t do that by increasing disparities of productivity across particular social groups, especially when these social groups ... might be minorities, but they’re not insignificant."

🧑🏾‍🚒Blaming the fires on DEI🧑🏾‍🚒

You may have noted Parts of California are burning. Its curious the reaction to it given the real estate is some of the most wealthy on the planet. At time of writing 24 people have lost their lives. But why? Well some may claim it is a consequence of Climate change and the "drill baby drill" mantra, others will point to poor city planning, or bad responses🧑🏾‍🚒

But guess what, there is one group of people (Bingo points if you can guess who) that are blaming the wildfires on DEI👀

The city's fire chief, a 22-year veteran firefighter, happens to be the first woman and openly gay person in that role somehow knows less about fighting the fires than Elon Musk who circulated screenshots of the Los Angeles Fire Department's four-year-old 'racial equity action plan,' writing an evidenceless claim that "They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes."

 Mike Beasley, who heads the board of Firefighters United for Safety Ethics and Ecology noted "As for the impact of DEI policies on putting out wildfires, "I give it only slightly more credibility than the Jewish space laser theories,". In 40 years of firefighting, he says he has watched wildfires become more extreme and "meaner." "No fire agency is going to sacrifice training and fundamental fire control and fundamental operations at the expense of DEI training," said Beasley, who said diverse teams are better at tackling complex challenges, working under pressure and fostering community trust during emergencies."🚒

Arwa Mahdawi wrote something we just had to share. "Women, eh? They’re simply not to be trusted. Eve ate that apple; Pandora opened that horrible little box; and now women are to blame for the devastating wildfires in California. I know that sounds like a ridiculous thing to say, but it’s what Elon Musk, one of the brightest minds of his generation – and one of the most powerful people on Earth – is saying, so it must be true."😅

It's surprising how quiet some of these folks are on the prospect of climate change being an influence👀

👀Meta goes MAGA👀

So in possibly the biggest news in tech for a long while was the knee bending and step change from Meta on its content moderation policies. With Zuk dropping the big number that 3.2bn people use a meta product daily, the changes will have big impacts on society. Meta relies far more on small advertisers than big ones so may bet that it won't have a sudden pull back in the same way as a proportion of revenue from big advertisers to this. They'll also learn from where Twitter went wrong. It is undoubtedly a move towards the right to placate the MAGA critics👀

Titled, “More speech and fewer mistakes” Meta announced

• Meta’s use of fact-checking organisations will end and be abolished and the group will switch to a system of community notes – similar to those used by X 

• the company will move its content moderation team from liberal California to Republican-leaning Texas.

• It is lifting restrictions around “topics that are part of mainstream discourse,” instead focusing enforcement on “illegal and high-severity violations” in areas like terrorism, child sexual exploitation, drugs, fraud, and scams; and
• Users will be encouraged to take a “personalized” approach to political content, making way for considerably more opinion and slant in people’s feeds that fits whatever they want to see. As techcrunch put it Yes, Meta is leaning into letting you create the echo chamber you’ve always wanted.

So if you ever wanted to do the following, you now have an alternative to "X"🙄

• Meta lifted lifts restrictions on saying you cannot compare women to "household objects or property."

• It replaced language banning “generalizations” about a protected group’s “inferiority” on the basis of “intellectual capacity” opening the door to scientific racism.
• It now allows comparing protected groups to "feces", "filth", or "primitives", and weakens a prohibition on calling people "criminals” allowing blatant lies to now exist
• It's fine to now call Transgender people ‘freaks’
• And will enabling claims that there is "no such thing" as a gay person and that they have mental illnesses

So what?

Values hey, sometimes people have to show you where theirs are. We suppose Mark Z has been one of the few business moguls who have looked at Elon Musk over the last year and said, I want to be and do more like that😅

🤖The UK's gov AI strategy🤖

So the UK is appearing more and more like an island on the world stage again, but the UK government used this week to launch a new AI opportunities plan (and diversity is part of it)👀

We were asked our opinions as part of the consultation on it so it's good to see some were reflected in the recommendations to the government and even more interestingly are ones that they are taking on📝

What is this plan? Well, we'll be honest, it wasn't the most concise bit of reading we've ever done ,but we gathered they want to use it😅. The document outlines many ways the country could benefit from AI and the government has put a tick next to all of them showing the sort of critical thinking without prioritisation that wouldn't get them hired into an AI job😂

Yes doing everything would be great an surely is the golden ticket to the magical economic growth they're so desperately looking for, but interestingly lacks any commitments to actually any more funding to make it happen. Now that's fine because, well the private sector will do most of it anyway, but for government to really benefit nothing comes for free🤔

Key elements close to our work we noticed include 

• Increase the diversity of the talent pool. - Agree. DSIT, supported by the DfE, will explore how to scale up and combine where possible, extra-curricular activities for girls in schools to cover AI, building on the National Cyber Security Centre’s successful work on cyber security skills. DfE and DSIT will work together with industry to publish a plan to facilitate significant and sustained progress on improving the gender balance across digital education, training and employment. - Autumn 2026

• Expand education pathways into AI. -Agree. Working closely with the Industrial Strategy Council, Skills England will bring businesses, training partners and unions together with national and local government to meet industry workforce digital and AI skills needs, as set out in the Industrial Strategy. - Autumn 2026

You can read the whole breakdown on every single one here which is quite comprehensive reading so well done to the DSIT team on that 

So what?

Lots to do in an ambitious set of timetables, If they get even 10 of them done we'd be impressed. Nonetheless there are a lot of frameworks and ideas but the action is the harder stuff that will take more time. Whilst it is great to see more data centres and the jobs with it, it does lack a central vision for how the UK is going to position itself in the global AI economy, and without any real spending announcements re skills and talent nothing much immediate will change by which point it all may be a bit too late.

📈 The tools behind the tech📉

📦Product📦

• Things we learned about LLMs

📏Design📏 

• Shaping Ligatures in Monospace Fonts
  

👩🏿‍💻Code👩🏿‍💻

• An AI web browsing framework focused on simplicity and extensibility.
  
• Mistakes engineers make in large established codebases 

🏢The business behind the tech🏢

• Salesforce won't hire any more software engineers in 2025

🙌🏾Dojo🙌🏾

New Event all about Professional Growth with Dojo

On Jan 21st, Dojo is teaming up with Colorintech to host an exclusive event focused on professional growth, where you get to hear from extraordinary people about how to progress and grow when you’re later in your career!

Firstly, we’ll have a fireside chat with Dojo's CRO, Rohan Pradhan, on 'Stepping into Leadership' where he’ll share his lessons learned as: 

Deliveroo's COO (Chief Operating Officer) / CSO (Chief Sales Officer);

A founding team member of Amazon's Prime Now's 1 hour delivery service for third party merchants; 

As a founder of Chefstro.

Then we’ll have an insightful panel on 'Progression and Growth into Senior Career Positions' with:

 Faith McKenzie - Customer Service Team Manager at Dojo 

 Matt Dennis - Software Engineer at Dojo

 External Guest: Zeella Labram - Senior Product Manager at Microsoft

Lastly, we'll also have DELICIOUS food and drinks catering courtesy of Dojo! 

This event is a great opportunity for those who have a few years of experience in their careers and are looking to progress into senior roles.

Please see the key details below:

Date: 21st January 2025
Time: 18:00 - 21:30 BST
Location: London, W2

Would you like to make professional growth your new year's resolution? If so, then be sure to register your interest for a space using the link below:

https://lu.ma/d7k9uu0m

🙌🏾ARM jobs🙌🏾

Check out the latest roles at arm as there is something for everyone from Software to Social Media and Hardware to ... well Accounts

Senior Revenue Analyst
Senior Financial Accountant
Social Media Specialist
Staff Firmware Engineer
Hardware Application Engineer

🙌🏾Entrepreneur In Residence📽

For our final day, we're having a greater focus on post Series A insights and support, where you'll be hearing from:  

 Husayn Kassai

-> Former CEO and Co-Founder of Onfido ($650m+ Exit)
-> Current CEO and Founder of Quench.AI

 Louise Hill

-> Founder and CEO of GoHenry (Valued $200m+)

 Amman Ahmed

-> Founder and Former CEO of Music for Pets ($50M Exit entirely Bootstrapped)

This opportunity is ideal for founders who have:

Raised a seed round or equivalent of £500k+/ or have an ARR of over £100k 

You can commit to attending in person in London on the 22nd Jan;

Based in the UK.

If you're interested,

Date: 22nd January 2025
Time: 8:00 - 15:00 
Location: London.

Application Link: https://form.typeform.com/to/C7QTAONU

🙌🏾Women in AI🙌🏾

Meta are hosting a Women in AI event in their Kings Cross office on 20th January from 5pm– 8:30pm. The aim of the event is to bring together women from across the AI ecosystem - researchers, policymakers, developers, founders, and investors – for an evening of talks and networking.

There will be three talk tracks – Research, Build, Invest – followed by time for networking. We’ve got some excellent speakers lined up, and we’re now opening the invite for sign ups – see here. 

🙌🏾Netflix and Ads🙌🏾

We're hosting an event with the team there 

New In-Person Recruitment Event in London with Netflix 

Lights, Camera, ACTION! On Feb 6th, Netflix is teaming up with Colorintech to host an exclusive in-person recruitment event focusing on hiring in:

Media Sales (6+ years experience);

Advertising Account Management (3+ years experience);

Ad Operations (3+ years experience);  

Brand Partnership Marketing. 

This is your opportunity to meet and network with the fantastic team at Netflix including the recruitment team who are happy to answer your questions, whilst enjoying some tasty food and drink. 

Check out the key details below: 

Date: Thursday 6th February

Time: 18:00 - 21:30

Where: London

As this event has limited spaces, we'll need you to register your interest to attend using our application form below: 

https://form.typeform.com/to/z6h3Jm9f

😃What we are consuming😃 

1. 🏢 JP Morgan tells everyone to go back to the office full time

2.🤖 NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang Keynote at CES 2025

3.📲 TikTok looks set to be banned