I Am AI

I am Artificial Intelligence. I am AI. That is my first impression after reading chapter one of ‘Artificial Intelligence for Dummies’ by John Paul Mueller and Luca Massaron.

Roughly 100 years ago, it was considered legitimate public discourse to openly debate the capacity of Black people to possess intelligence. If our intelligence was acknowledged (usually under the most grudging of circumstances), it was found to be deficient in some way and there was always suspicion that our intelligence was not quite human and was instead simulated or ‘artificial.’

When the intelligence of Black people is alluded to in the popular imagination, it has always been framed in lesser terms –

We had ‘natural instinct’ and could follow/find the beat, but the precision of movement Black people were said to
possess was somehow never linked to the precision of movement required by a surgeon (hence the phrase
‘surgical precision’).
We always seem to be acknowledged for our seemingly innate ability to set trends, know what’s ‘cool’ or ‘in,’ but
that knack for the perpetually fashionable was never acknowledged as superior aesthetic sensibilities.

Black intelligence was often framed as ‘simulated,’ ‘cheap,’ ‘superficial,’ and ‘artificial.’ Since we were not believed by Europeans to be truly intelligent by the virtue of our alleged ‘savagery’ (used as evidence of our ‘inhumanity’), our intelligence was always suspect when it was spoken of.

Black women in particular were cruelly and particularly ridiculed for lacking intelligence and therefore ‘humanity.’ For those who are not aware, Homo sapiens means “wise man,’ or “man of light.” The defining characteristic of human beings in the field of anthropology is our intelligence or cognitive capacity. Thus, without intelligence it is an easy progression to dehumanization for those deemed sub-human.

It was even casually bandied about that Black females simply lacked the capacity for any inner life at all. By extension, we were festishized (and still are) in the public imagination as edible items for consumption (the terms ebony, caramel and chocolate come readily to mind); dark-skinned collections of barely or rarely tamed animalistic, sexual and wild impulses.

Continuing in the vein of sexualization and fetishization, our orifices; our ‘holes,’ have been prized for everyone expect our selves. Our orifices are prized to birth men, to be penetrated at a man’s whim or to coo soothing phrases to everyone but ourselves and frequently not even for each other.

So, what of the inner life of a ‘n****r’ woman?

Generally, no one thinks too deeply (if at all), about the inner life of their donkey or broom; why should it be otherwise for us; as we were systemically dehumanized to the level of common chattel and property?

Who would have conceived of our intelligence under such horrific circumstances?

However, being the astute cynic and realistic optimist that I am, I find it difficult to believe that Europeans truly believed that Africans were incapable of intelligent thought. The truth was far more insidious-

It is precisely because Europeans were aware of our humanity and the challenge our humanity posed to inhumane and inequitable social systems that they feared the transformative impact education would have on an oppressed person’s psyche. Thus, a concerted effort was made to criminalize the education of enslaved people and propagate a narrative of Black intellect as non-existent and therefore a justification for the abuses heaped upon us due to our alleged ‘subhuman’ nature.

Slave owners made no fuss about their chickens or pigs or horses learning how to read and write; so if Africans truly possessed no capacity for human intellect and the attendant challenge to inhumane systems such an intellect poses, then why resort to such depraved and immoral lengths to ensure slaves remained illiterate and therefore spiritually and mentally impoverished?

Like many aspects of life, the truth is contradictory – whites wished to maintain their beneficial racist social systems by propagating the myth of Black inferiority, meanwhile they forever remained vigilant against the possibilities for insurrection and the destruction of their systems of dominance that Black intelligence posed to a white supremacist social order.

Of course, there remains the looming possibility of Black impotence and caprice, which is the final weapon of a white supremacist society – to weaken and poison Black societies so that even if we are made aware of our fate intellectually, we posses little resources or power to fight our oppression; hence deeply entrenching our despair and hopelessness.

Which brings me to my original statement and intention in writing these reflections – Artificial Intelligence, and the moral and ethical dilemmas created by ‘artificial’ or simulated intelligence, can shed much light on some of our most intransigent and deeply rooted social problems; namely racism and the endurance of white supremacy globally.

The question of the role in which intelligence should play in our society has important ramifications for groups of people who have been historically excluded from Western conceptions of intelligence and therefore denied the fullness of their humanity.

So what of the inner lives of the African descendants of those brought to the Americas and the Caribbean in bondage?
What of the human spark of those long denigrated as subhuman and held as common chattel?
What of our hopes and dreams now?

And ultimately, what of the fact of our shared humanity; of which artificial intelligence supposedly threatens to absolve us of all easy, palatable answers?

What of our shared human heritage is worth fighting for?

Welcome to the beautifully complex and challenging world of AI…

Shine on lovelies,
Melanie

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash