Artificial Intelligence, (AI) is continuously changing the way we think about the functions of everyday lives, including the way we work, learn and even how companies operate their businesses.
Through mobile applications, AI is helping to intelligently search and seek an expanded possibility of solutions.
Simply put, “artificial intelligence is a field, which combines computer science and robust datasets, to enable problem-solving. It also encompasses sub-fields of machine learning and deep learning, which are frequently mentioned in conjunction with artificial intelligence,” according to the dictionary’s definition of the term.
Its capability has been applied to multiple ways in recent years. From the ways users are already engaged with mobile apps and technology, which enables voice or language recognition, to the way some law enforcement agencies use AI using facial recognition software.
“You’re inputting information, and of course it’s coming back out, but as technology has advanced, it’s [AI] learning,” said Katrina Turnbow Marion, Kanopi Social and Detroit Digital Coach at Google. “One of the things that AI has made significant is to lower the barriers of entry in so many areas. You can now do really impactful, fast research on whatever industry you’re looking to connect with, and even meeting people.”
Marion said the AI world and its accessibility, along with one’s creativity, is something that will propel an individual forward, particularly in the Black community. “Something we have often struggled with is the ability to collect that would allow you to make educated decisions on what you should do next.”
She believes the capabilities of AI coupled with someone’s creativity and vision make for a powerful force for good in the Black community that couldn’t be stopped, but people must be informed.
“The critical piece is not the actual AI, it’s the awareness and making sure our community understands that this is a place of power, not something that should be rooted in fear.”
As artificial intelligence has been an embedded part of our life in ways we haven’t realized, the emergence of its capability is starting to make employers thing about the ways in which AI are utilized in a more intentional way in workplace operations.
“We’re trying to help people reimagine what work looks like,” said Hajj Flemings, founder of Rebrand Cities and Prompt Camp. “We don’t believe everyone is going to be replaced by AI, but people who understand and leverage AI will replace those people.”
The advancing technology will certainly have companies figuring out ways to create efficiencies while reducing redundancies and taking on the role a human being once filled, likely creating displacement or providing time and attention to tasks an employee can focus on elsewhere within their company.
“I think there are a lot of things we do at our jobs that we don’t draw energy from that seem repetitive and can be automated,” Flemings added. “We don’t multitask well as human beings, computers do.”
From formatting a document to scheduling meetings to certain management elements, all are things companies can automate according to Flemings.
AI is also changing the way people enjoy or appreciate music. AI tools allowed an online user to recently mimic the voices of artists such as Drake and The Weeknd and piece together a would-be song collaboration between the powerhouse artists. The song gained major online traction, and quickly became a hit, despite both artists never having anything to do with the song that was AI-generated.
“If you think about how music is created, you connect with an artist,” Flemmings said. “Because that artist is creating from a sense of pain or something you can relate to, AI might sound good, even if it could pull from all the songs that ever existed; it’s not like the story behind that song is going to be like, ‘this computer didn’t fall in love with this computer.’”
Flemings says that’s the part where artists leverage the storytelling creative and human connection capability they have while getting ahead of Al and the corporate music industry.
Which brings up the question of how artists get a chunk of the financial pie when AI-generated music takes the likeness of an artist’s voice and sound and streams on platforms which potentially draw revenue for the user who used AI to create it.
“An inflection point is coming where true advocacy and education as an artist is going to have to exist,” Marion said. “Artists can no longer afford the privilege to just be artists. They must be businesspeople.”
“I believe as with the writers’ strike, there will come a music movement, in alignment to the business of music that goes back over 100 years of African American music being stolen, the issues of rights and publishing . I think a lot of wrongs needs to be righted and it maybe actually happened because of AI.”
While there are many benefits to AI, there are just as many concerns as this tool continues to take share of market.
“There are privacy issues, there are transparency issues, there are ethics issues, governance issues,” said Flemings. “We as African Americans have an opportunity to be able to help shape what this looks like.”
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