Facebook's Efforts to Help Connect People With Disabilities
The social media company is using A.I. to make content on its site more accessible and connect people with disabilities to helpful communities.
"We are working on making it possible for essentially anybody to connect with anybody," says Matt King, an engineer at Facebook who lost his sight in college. He is also a three-time Paralympian and a record-breaking tandem cyclist.
Facebook's accessibility efforts are part of a wider commitment from tech companies, including Microsoft and Apple, to make their products easier to use.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/facebooks-accessibility-efforts).
Technology company Unity announced it has acquired Ziva Dynamics. Marc Whitten, SVP & GM, Create at Unity, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses how this move will help his company democratize real-time character creation.
AT&T announced it's offering two tiers of high-speed internet, 2 gigs, and 5 gigs, to its fiber customers in more than 70 metro regions. AT&T Consumer CEO Thaddeus Arroyo joined Cheddar to talk about the newly available speed upgrades for 5.2 million of its customers, and where the rollout goes from here. "Over the course of 2022, we'll rapidly continue to retrofit the rest of the base," he said. "And importantly now is, as we build-out, we've talked about building out to cover 30 million homes and businesses by the end of 2025, we're going to continue to ensure that every new location that we stand up has this multi gig capability."
Autonomous driving tech company Waymo is partnering with transportation and logistics business J.B. Hunt. The two firms are teaming up to bring autonomous shipping to the highways. Head of commercialization for trucking at Waymo, Charlie Jatt, joined Cheddar to discuss how the companies are combining their strengths. "We, of course at Waymo, are working on the technology side of affairs, and J. B Hunt brings critical operational and commercial expertise," Jatt said. "And together we're going to work to deploy the first fully autonomous Class 8 truck hauling goods for one of their customers in the coming years in Texas."
As companies look toward the metaverse concept to further move their companies online, Shep Ogden, CEO and co-founder of Offbeat Media, spoke with Cheddar about questions investors should be posing to businesses like how customized the metaverse experience will be. "One of the best things that people can do, or companies can do, to be competitive is really find those influencers within the community that are very deep in the space," Ogden added.
Ann Berry, Chief Investment Officer at Wheelhouse, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to break down why Netflix stock saw such a steep decline in after hours trading on Thursday.
Bill Lawton, Principal Research Engineer AT Georgia Tech Research Institute, joined Cheddar News to break down the latest with the controversial rollout of 5G, as the FAA continues to investigate possible flight disruptions.
