Are Black People Being Left Behind By AI?

In today’s digital and in person conversations, there is a particular irony in watching the public conversation around artificial intelligence unfold.

The urgency is new.

The technology is not.

Over the past year, artificial intelligence, “AI” for short, has become the subject of dinner table debates, conversations, social media warnings, corporate trainings, and political discourse. Entire industries are reorganizing themselves around it, and businesses are being built because of it. School districts are scrambling to respond to it. And parents are wondering how it will affect their children’s futures. All the while, fearful of what it can replace, while also considering, what it can create.

And within Black communities, a growing narrative has emerged: AI is dangerous.

As an early adopter of the newer models of AI, I was shocked. Hearing things like: AI is exploitative, AI is taking resources from communities that have already borne more than their share of society’s burdens, and the one that shook me the most: ‘AI is stealing clean water from Black people’.

I said whoa, wait a minute… What is going on?

Upfront, these concerns are not without merit.

But as I was so excited to see the vast amount of opportunities that this technology could open up, I was seeing my community shun this very magical seed. It was clear. The framing of this entire situation, deserves closer examination.

And perhaps I view this moment differently because I have been watching technology evolve quickly my entire life. I’ve helped it push boundaries. At fourteen years old, I began interning at Microsoft. I entered an industry that was already building the infrastructure upon which our modern digital lives would eventually depend. Long before “the cloud” became a household phrase, I walked through facilities that housed vast amounts of information. Long before ChatGPT…

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