Hey friends,
A few weeks ago I stepped onstage at Afrotech. I do a lot of talks, but to stand in front of a room of several thousand Black people committed to being part of and defining the future gave me a unique feeling of appreciation, pride, and yeah a lil swag.
I got to talk about something we don’t address nearly enough: the story we’re living in when it comes to AI, and the future we still have the power to shape. Most people only ever see me say this stuff if they’re in the room. This week I’m opening it up to all of you.
This keynote is about technology, yes, but more so it’s about power, liberation, interdependence, and what happens when we remember:
We’re not here to be “kept in the loop.” We’re here to define the circle.
Here are a few moments you’ll hear in the talk:
AI is not taking jobs. Humans are firing people en masse and blaming the machines for it. Words matter. Accountability matters. (h/t Dr. Rumman Chowdhury)
The real opportunity here is not replacement, but augmentation. Not making things in our image when we already exist, but building tools that help us become more of who we already are.
From single-player to multi-player. The broligarchs would have us financialize and monetize everything, including our relationships. Their worldview has us fending for ourselves with dependence on their systems rather than each other. It’s single-player mode when we need to be engaged in multiplayer.
This is a reset of power, not just a new set of tools. It’s an opportunity to accommodate the people and perspectives our old systems were designed to exclude.
The real opportunity is not to use these tools for extraction and further consolidation. There’s nothing innovative about that. We should instead create what Seneca scholar John Mohawk called “liberation technologies” defined by the people, in service of our freedom.
and the banger: “We were the machines.” A line that emerged without planning as I just felt the room and had my own bodily memory of the truth that before the machine age, Black folks were the machines for capitalism. So we’ve known this story and we have to write a different one.
Acknowledgements to Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Dr. Alondra Nelson, and Dr. Saidiya Hartman, whose scholarship illuminates the ways Black bodies have been commodified, instrumentalized, and even understood as technologies within larger systems of power.
If you’re grappling with how to live well in this new world personally, professionally, or creatively. I think you’ll feel seen in this one. Plus I nearly get attacked by a drone! Watch for that moment.
Watch the full keynote above. And if you enjoy it, please share it. Recommend it. Bring me to your company or community to go deeper.
And now for a word from one of our sponsors before we get back to more dope content below…
📣 SPONSOR: Working Smarter from Dropbox
AI hype is everywhere. Actual stories of people using it to make their work better? Those are rarer, and that’s exactly what Working Smarter delivers.
From chefs to shipwreck hunters to small-batch whiskey makers, this show highlights real humans using AI tools (including Dropbox Dash) to spend more time on what they do best.
It’s all stories of humans doing what they do best with a little help from tools that actually support their workflow instead of distracting from it.
👉 WorkingSmarter.ai or wherever you get your podcasts.
🙃 Palate Cleanser
Here’s a little something to reset the nervous system. With Hollywood exploding over the possible Netflix purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery and the promise/threat that AI will reduce the need for- and price of human labor, this video by Sergio Cilli is part of an entire series of weekly reels you can enjoy on his IG account.
If this landed for you, pass it on.
And if you think Sergio looks a bit familiar, it might be because he was behind the viral YouTube classic (from 16 years ago!?): We Got That B Roll
Ok that’s it for real.
See you in the comments,
Baratunde
Thanks to Associate Producer Layne Deyling Cherland for editorial and production support and to my executive assistant Mae Abellanosa.
