Why Black People Should Fear Artificial Intelligence And Learn To Code

Elon Musk, famous for building space ships, solar houses and Teslas, has been very outspoken about his suspicion against Artificial Intelligence. For example, he has famously stated that:

“I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful. I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish.”

He has spoken out against it's potential threats multiple times including in the following interview where he states plainly:

"It's not so much that I think the AI will develop a will of it's own right off that bat... The concern is that someone may use it in a way that is bad. and even if they weren't going to use it in a way that is bad, but someone may take it from them and use it in a way that is bad."

People have criticized him for statements like these, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg who is known to use various Artificial Intelligence algorithms including in the newsfeeds functionality on the Facebook platform.

I myself, have theorized about possible ways Artificial intelligence could pose a threat to civilization.

I even wrote an post on LinkedIn (that I have since deleted when I deleted a my former LinkedIn account) about how Artificial Intelligence can be very damaging to minority groups in society if used carelessly. I cited Microsoft's racist artificial intelligence Twitter bot as my primary example.

Well, today after reading an article on cointelegraph.com about How Blockchain May Play Crucial Role in Artificial Intelligence Development, Regulation; some disconcerting points drew my attention back to those concerns I raised over a year ago on LinkedIn. Namely that:

"predictive models are never neutral, but predict the goals and models of those who create them"..."This ultimately results in bias and unfairness"..."There is a real danger that the technology will be deployed in an unsuitable enviornment"...AI "tend(s) to load the dice against poor people"..."reinforcing inequality in society"..."including US prison sentencing and education."

I feel like these are really good reasons why Black people should fear AI. As those with higher levels of melanin are among the world's most disenfranchised people group on the planet. For the same reason that I wrote about Why Black People Should Fear Losing Net Neutrality, I feel that Black people should work hard to create a way that more of them can learn advanced skills in the Sciences and Engineering, including Artifical Intelligence.

For this and many other reasons, I believe our lives depend on it!