Dei

OpenAI has responded to a letter sent by the Congressional Black Caucus that flagged the lack of diversity on its board. OpenAI’s response letter, which TechCrunch saw, was dated January 5 and signed by CEO Sam Altman and Chairman of the Board Bret Taylor. It said building a complete and diverse board was one of the company’s top priorities and that it was working with an executive search firm to assist it in finding talent. The OpenAI board has received criticism for its lack of gender and racial diversity since its…

Nervous fliers are nothing new, and the fear of air travel is as common as they come. But a cohort of right-wingers have convinced themselves that planes are more dangerous than ever because of airlines’ diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, which they baselessly argue have put unqualified flight crews in the cockpit. Lately, some have even expressed racist doubts in the abilities of Black pilots or pledged not to fly on commercial carriers that support for the LGBTQ community. Although DEI has become…

Billionaire hedge fund chief and burgeoning Internet Main Character Bill Ackman used the afternoon of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to claim the civil rights leader would have been against the movement for diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education and businesses. It’s a claim that MLK’s daughter has previously rejected. Ackman made the comments during a Space conversation on X (formerly Twitter) alongside Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips and X owner Elon Musk on Monday. The discussion came…

Two of the country’s leading civil rights organizations went after Elon Musk on Wednesday after the tech billionaire linked a safety scandal that has grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 jets to diversity hiring efforts. Dozens of 737 Max 9 aircraft have been grounded since Friday after a window panel blew out of an aircraft midair due to loose bolts. Inspections have found similar loose bolts in other aircraft, causing major safety concerns. In the wake of the news, X owner Elon Musk claimed, without evidence, that…

Not even two weeks into the new year, and it looks as though far-right agitators have honed in on the scapegoat of the season: DEI, shorthand for “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives and policies that can be implemented in workplaces and educational institutions. Although long included in the litany of vilified concepts that conservatives like to complain about — from “wokeness” to gender fluidity to Critical Race Theory — DEI has taken a new place of prominence after being scapegoated for two incidents…

Bill Ackman, billionaire founder and CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, has become a new and formidable actor in the American culture wars thanks to his connections to Harvard University. But by stepping into the fray, he inadvertently took up the mantle of a social media archetype that is awkward and difficult to shed: He’s 2024’s first “wife guy.” Back in early November, a month after Hamas militants’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Ackman, who is Jewish, addressed a 3,000-word open letter…

Oklahoma took a stand against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) last month. The state’s governor, Kevin Stitt, signed an executive order defunding DEI efforts in public colleges and universities and banning it in other state agencies. He said the move would take “politics out of education” and encourage “equal opportunity rather than promising equal outcomes.” Affirmative action itself has been banned in the state since 2012. This latest executive order does not target student organizations, but it does ban state…

Carta, an ambitious 12-year-old Silicon Valley outfit, has gone through numerous iterations over time, originally inviting investors, startups, and employees to use its software to manage their cap tables and later aspiring to evolve into a “private stock market for companies,” as founder Henry Ward once told TechCrunch. As he explained back in 2019: “Now that you have this network of companies and investors all on one platform and the ability to transfer securities, you can build liquidity on top of it.” The…

In a series of posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Mark Cuban hit Elon Musk over his comments about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Musk, the owner of X and Tesla, posted online multiple times Wednesday that DEI efforts are racist. “Discrimination on the basis of race, which DEI does, is literally the definition of racism,” Musk posted. In a separate post, Musk was responding to comments about Harvard President Claudine Gay resigning and said “DEI is just another word for…

January 5, 2024 @ 11:30 AM Mark Cuban is game for a debate with Elon Musk on X over DEI as the two trade barbs on the social media platform. Cuban, the entrepreneur owner of the Dallas Mavericks and star of reality TV show “Shark Tank,” engaged in a debate with Musk on Wednesday which has since continued over their differing positions on DEI initiatives. After Cuban challenged a post from Musk which read: “Discrimination on the basis of race, which DEI does, is literally the definition of racism,” the…