😲Business risks of DEI🏦

Pinterest just filed its latest SEC report, and guess what’s now a business risk? DEI. That’s right—diversity, equity, and inclusion are apparently as threatening to their bottom line as economic downturns. Who knew making workplaces fairer would be such a financial liability? Oh, wait… Did someone say Executive order.

For a platform that settled a $22.5M discrimination lawsuit in 2020, this feels rich. Instead of doubling down on meaningful change, Pinterest is hedging against the risk of being too inclusive. (Because, clearly, the real danger here isn’t discrimination—it’s upsetting those who oppose equity. 🙃)

Here’s a thought: if diversity is bad for business, maybe the business model is the problem?

Well it looks like Disney tried to roll back on DEI but couldn't quite manage it because it's probably quite bad for their business to do so, so it turned to bit of a rebrand to hope folks look the other way😅 Read more here

At Colorintech, we know inclusion isn’t a liability—it’s an advantage. Companies that backtrack now might find out the hard way that the real risk is irrelevance for a platform that has a diversity of users

✂️Accenture cuts✂️

Accenture, the consulting giant that once championed diversity, has reportedly scrapped its DEI goals, according to an internal memo😲. Because why push for equity when you can just… not?

This move is part of a “streamlining” effort (read: corporate-speak for let’s quietly backtrack) as they "sunset" what happened to a Millei (Argentina's radical trump like pro austerity president) style chainsaw🪚.

Let’s not forget, Accenture was once a DEI darling, setting bold targets and touting progress. Now? Not so much. But hey, at least they didn’t pretend “it’s still a priority” before tossing it in the bin.

🫂Employee Wellbeing🫂

In nice news here are 6 key questions to ask employees to help foster deeper connections, build psychological safety, and support their personal and professional growth.

If you CBA to read it here they are

• 1. How are you showing up today on a scale of 1-10?

• 2. What’s something you’re excited about right now outside of work?

• 3. Do you derive meaning from your work? If not, what changes could help?

• 4. What could make this job or organization more compelling for you in the long run?

• 5. What makes you feel depleted or drains you at work and what can I do to support you?

• 6. What are your career goals and dreams? What can I do to help you move towards them?

Read the breakdown here

🪙Alexa - Remember her🪙

Amazon’s Alexa is getting a major AI upgrade this month, and while the tech world is buzzing, we can’t help but wonder… does anyone still use Alexa?😅

Once the futuristic voice assistant that promised to change our lives, Alexa has slowly faded into the background—kind of like a friend you stopped texting back. Now, Amazon is giving her a glow-up with generative AI, hoping she’ll finally be the assistant we always wanted. But let’s be real: will this make her smarter, or just chattier?🤖

Remember when Alexa was supposed to revolutionize everything? Instead, she spent years setting timers, mishearing song requests, and telling us the weather we could literally see outside. And with smart assistants losing their shine, it appears Amazon is giving last-ditch effort💸

What will Alexa be able to do now? Well according to the reporting Alexa will be able to hold complex, context-aware conversations with users, and will be able to handle multi-faceted requests (We hope it could get the weather right too)🤣

So, is this the comeback of the year or just another AI rebrand? Who's worse right now, Siri or Alexa, maybe that's the question?🤔

So what? 

This isn’t just about Alexa—it’s about the AI hype cycle. If a trillion-dollar company still hasn’t nailed voice AI after a decade, what does that say about where AI is actually useful? Maybe the future isn’t about talking to our tech, but about how tech can truly understand us. Companies that crack that? They’ll be the ones we actually remember.

👀The government wants to hack👀

If you thought privacy was just an illusion, the UK government is here to confirm it😅. 

A new proposal would grant authorities even more power to hack into devices, all in the name of "national security." Because apparently, encryption and civil liberties are just suggestions now for some.

Under this plan, agencies could legally break into phones and computers without a warrant, bypassing traditional legal safeguards. (Because who needs due process when you have good intentions?)👀 

Of course the rationale is to catch criminals and see what the bad guys are up to, so you weigh it up⚖️

And here’s where things get spicy—Apple has reportedly been ordered to install a secret iCloud backdoor for UK authorities. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it echoes the FBI’s 2016 demand for Apple to unlock a terrorist’s iPhone—an order Apple refused, arguing that creating a backdoor for one case would open the floodgates for mass surveillance📸

Apple has made it clear: they’d rather withdraw encrypted iCloud and iMessage services from the UK than compromise encryption. And given that they’ve already pulled similar services in China to avoid compliance, they might just follow through. Because let’s be honest—once governments get access to backdoors, it’s not just about criminals. It’s a direct threat to everyone’s privacy, from activists to journalists to, well, even you.👉🏾

So what? 

This isn’t just about the UK—it’s a global policy regarding digital rights. If one government forces Apple’s hand, others will follow, and end-to-end encryption as we know it could be over. The question is: do we really want to live in a world where privacy is optional?

😅Cant game, we'll p(l)ay 😅

Good news, PlayStation fans! After the recent PSN outage had gamers refreshing their connections like it was an Olympic sport, Sony is handing out extra PlayStation Plus days to all affected subscribers. It’s a nice gesture—because hey, time lost is time lost—but let’s be honest, this probably wasn’t just an act of goodwill🧐

More likely, the lawyers were in the background going, “Uh, guys… people paid for this service. If we don’t give them something, we might be looking at a refund situation—or worse, a lawsuit.” So rather than cutting checks, Sony is extending memberships by a few days. It’s a fair compromise—after all, handing out cash refunds would be like trying to convince a Final Fantasy boss to go easy on you😝

That said, let’s give credit where it’s due: Sony is at least acknowledging the inconvenience. Some companies might’ve shrugged and moved on (cough ISPs cough), so while this isn’t the most groundbreaking compensation, it’s better than a "sorry, tough luck!" auto-reply.😅

So what?

This is a reminder that in our subscription-based world, when services go down, companies are obliged (usually) to make it right. Sure, extra days won’t erase the frustration, but at least it’s something. And hey—maybe we just unlocked a new gamer survival tip: whenever there’s an outage, wait a bit and Sony might just add some bonus time to your account.

🔞A little bit of Trump🔞(Ok lets sing it like -A Little Bit of Luck, by DJ Luck & MC Neat) - because at this point, luck might be all we’ve got.)

We promise we won’t comment on everything Donald Trump does (because, let’s be honest, we’re definitely not getting paid enough for that). However, we came across an interesting article summarizing all the—well, let’s call it policy instead of damage—that he has implemented in the tech space since January 20. You can read it here📰

Nonetheless if you follow his Rhetoric that everyone can win then you may be on to something in Startup Dub. Yep because nothing screams "responsible financial education" like 14-year-olds mirroring the trades of their favorite social media personalities, now they can do it for politicians too.

Let’s not forget, U.S. lawmakers have a suspiciously good track record in the stock market, often making perfectly timed trades on industries they regulate (total coincidence, right?). Maybe it is right to follow💸

In other news, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, finally said the quiet part out loud—AI’s benefits may not be widely distributed. A bold admission considering his company is one of the main players shaping the future of AI. But hey, at least he’s acknowledging it! The question is: will they actually do anything about it, or is this just a warm-up for an “AI inequality” TED Talk?😅

In other news he rejected (With a troll at X's latest valuation) a hostile bid from a consortium led by Elon musk to buy Open ai for ~$100bn 👹 by responding saying "No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”😅

Then, just when you thought Google was still holding onto some of its old-school “Don’t Be Evil” vibes, it went ahead and quietly removed its pledge to not use AI for weapons. Yep back in 2018 when Google pledged that it "will not design or deploy AI" for weapons? Well, that commitment just vanished. Well Google's AI principles page no longer includes this language. Instead, it now says that Google “will continue to thoughtfully evaluate when and how to provide our technologies to government entities” No blog post, no flashy announcement—just a casual, “Yeah, that whole ‘no AI for killing’ thing? Never mind.” Because nothing says trust us with AI like sneaky edits to your ethical commitments👀

And while tech giants are doing their thing, the EU has stepped in as well the very expected AI regulator of the moment, banning certain AI systems that pose an "unacceptable risk." Now, whether this regulation will actually work is up for debate (because, let’s be real, bad actors aren’t exactly rule-followers), but the list of banned technologies does raise some interesting points - examples include;🇪🇺

✅ Predictive policing based on profiling – Because letting AI decide who is likely to commit a crime based on biased data? Yeah, that was never going to end well.

✅ AI that manipulates behavior in ways people can’t detect – That creepy algorithm nudging you into decisions without you realizing? Gone (Probably not cough meta and TikTok) (in the EU, at least).

✅ Emotion recognition in workplaces and schools – Because forcing people to prove how they feel to a machine is dystopian nonsense.

✅ Mass biometric surveillance in public spaces (with some exceptions) – No more silent AI-powered tracking of entire populations.

Of course, if you’re in the UK, these EU rules don’t apply because of that (insert whatever you like way to describe) Brexit. So for now, we’re just watching from the sidelines, wondering whether the UK government will follow suit or let things run wild🇬🇧

So what?

Between OpenAI’s reality check, Google’s sneaky AI weapons edit, and the EU’s attempt at playing AI police, one thing is clear: AI is at a turning point. Who benefits (or suffers) depends on who’s making the rules and who’s bending them. If companies won’t self-regulate, governments will step in—for better or worse. - Image Credit Amfo Talent

📈 The tools behind the tech📉

📦Product📦

• How to scale your model

• Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools

📏Design📏 

• Open Ai's Brand redesign

👩🏿‍💻Code👩🏿‍💻

• How to use LLM's as a staff engineer

• Software engineering topics that you may think differently about

• Code signing at Mozilla

• LLM's impact on software engineer

🏢The business behind the tech🏢

• Klarna and Crypto before IPO

🙌🏾Depop🙌🏾

Take a look below and - 

click source or flag that you heard it about from Colorintech to help make sure you application gets a thorough look😉

• Machine Learning

• Technical CRM Operations

• Backend Engineering

• Data Science

• iOS Engineering

• Platform Engineering

• Engineering Managers

• Finance Business Partner

See more info here 

🙌🏾Milltown Partners🙌🏾

Our Friends at the amazing advisory firm MIlltown partners are growing their team across a range senioriorities for those interested in comms, PR and more.

If you're lucky you may even get the opportunity to work with us. Given that, take a look  

🙌🏾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

🙌🏾An event🙌🏾

Microsoft for Startups and Level39 are inviting you to their upcoming "Women Founders Get Together" event that will take place on Thursday 6th of March. Women Founders Get Together: Securing Investment Tickets, Thu, Mar 6, 2025 at 12:00 PM | Eventbrite

This event aims to empower women founders and prepare them for their next fundraising endeavours. The event will start with a panel discussion featuring Microsoft, Auquan, Playfair Capital and Conduit Connect followed by a networking session.

Your expertise and insights would be invaluable to these inspiring entrepreneurs, and your presence will help cultivate connections that could lead to future collaborations.

When: Thursday, March 6th, 2025, from noon to 3pm UK time

Where: Level39, London, UK

To attend, please register here.

😃What we are consuming😃

♟Big tech is a pawn in the trade wars

🏈 Startups at the superbowl

🇪🇸 Spain reduces its working week

☄️ An asteroid has a 1.9% chance of hitting Earth in 2032 Well that would be something for us all to look forward to

💰The all women VCs

💸Amazon Revenues surpass walmart

😥Workday cuts as it moves to AI

⛪️Black church vandalized by Proud Boys given rights to the group's name and trademark by court