{"id":1503190,"date":"2024-02-16T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/?p=127409"},"modified":"2024-02-16T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T12:30:00","slug":"what-will-generative-ai-mean-for-the-racial-wealth-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/16\/what-will-generative-ai-mean-for-the-racial-wealth-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"What will generative AI mean for the racial wealth gap?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img width=\"1024\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C540&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image\" alt=\"Two men work at a restaurant cooking burgers on a grill and at a prep station. Generative AI has the potential to eliminate their jobs.\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C158&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C540&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C405&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C810&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1080&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C633&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?resize=1568%2C827&amp;ssl=1 1568w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C211&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C372&amp;ssl=1 706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?resize=150%2C79&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?w=2340&amp;ssl=1 2340w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C540&amp;ssl=1&amp;w=370 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 34.9rem) calc(100vw - 2rem), (max-width: 53rem) calc(8 * (100vw \/ 12)), (min-width: 53rem) calc(6 * (100vw \/ 12)), 100vw\" \/><\/figure><span class=\"rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\">5<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>\n<p>Kelcey Gibbons, a doctoral student who studies African Americans in technology and the Black\u00a0middle class, is not quite sure what she makes of generative artificial intelligence and how it might impact the racial wealth gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gibbons anticipates that generative AI will force organizations to rethink which skills matter in the workplace, aggravating existing inequalities without a strong emphasis on access and education.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It could also become a scapegoat for why disadvantaged groups struggle with upward mobility. Whether it narrows the racial wealth gap will depend on participation from the bottom up, Gibbons said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group newspack-pattern subscribe__style-6 is-style-border compress-newsletter has-dark-gray-color has-text-color has-background is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\" style=\"background:linear-gradient(180deg,rgb(238,242,244) 0%,rgb(166,207,248) 100%)\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-dark-gray-color has-text-color has-large-font-size\"><strong>Never miss an investigation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-dark-gray-color has-text-color\">Subscribe to our free, weekly Watchdog newsletter to get the latest inequality news from Public Integrity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns are-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-layout-1 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\t<div\n\t\tclass=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe \"\n\t\tdata-success-message=\"Thank you for signing up!\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t<form id=\"newspack-subscribe-1\">\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" id=\"newspack_newsletters_subscribe\" name=\"newspack_newsletters_subscribe\" value=\"3bd4a70fd4\" \/><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_wp_http_referer\" value=\"\/feed\/\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"lists[]\" value=\"ffd1d0160d\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-newsletters-email-input\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<label for=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe-block-input-74404-email\">Email Address<\/label>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input\n\t\t\t\t\t\tid=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe-block-input-74404-email\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\ttype=\"email\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tname=\"npe\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tautocomplete=\"email\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tplaceholder=\"Email Address\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tvalue=\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<input class=\"nphp\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" name=\"email\" type=\"email\" autocomplete=\"off\" placeholder=\"Email Address\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<input class=\"submit-button\"type=\"submit\" value=\"Subscribe\" style=\"\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/form>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe__response\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe__icon\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe__message\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-dark-gray-color has-text-color has-small-font-size\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">Use the unsubscribe link in the emails to opt out at any time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Generative AI is a broad term for artificial intelligence that can create new content, such as art, audio, code, music, text and videos. It uses machine learning, another form of artificial intelligence that gleans patterns from data and algorithms that help to process new and more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The technology can increase productivity by automating tasks now done by humans. For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/chat.openai.com\/auth\/login\">chatGPT<\/a> is a tool trained to produce text and code. It can provide detailed responses to questions, translate languages, identify errors in code and provide copywriting in the voice of a brand.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other generative AI tools and platforms can create interactive virtual learning or gaming environments. Professional sports leagues like the <a href=\"https:\/\/digiday.com\/marketing\/how-the-nba-hopes-to-use-generative-ai-to-attract-more-users-to-its-app\/\">NBA and NHL<\/a> are using generative AI to provide more detailed sports content to their consumers and better understand their audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Workers fear generative AI will replace human jobs, which will affect Black people, who have the highest unemployment rates in the nation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, generative AI is just the latest version of the old saying: \u201cWhen America catches a cold, Black people get pneumonia.\u201d In this case, it\u2019s because Black people are disproportionately in the jobs that technology is likely to replace. And it could mean, once again, that fewer Black people will have decent jobs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/bem\/our-insights\/the-impact-of-generative-ai-on-black-communities\">recent report<\/a> by the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility, part of the business management and consulting firm McKinsey &amp; Co., generative AI has the potential to widen the racial wealth gap between Black and white Americans by $43 billion annually over the next 20 years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if generative AI is applied with equity in mind, it could instead help close the racial wealth gap and remove barriers to Black economic mobility, the report says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not so fast, said<a href=\"https:\/\/drexel.edu\/coas\/faculty-research\/faculty-directory\/history\/slaton-amy\/\"> Amy Slaton<\/a>, a professor of history at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Despite discourse around inclusion and a \u201ctremendous faith in the idea of merit,\u201d the systems in which people of color and marginalized groups operate seldom change.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGenerative AI comes in with a high-tech promise for the economy, but it\u2019s not,\u201d Slaton said. \u201cNothing is changing for the communities that make up that economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Big technological shifts have a history of keeping Black people at or near the bottom already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, global trade networks yielded tremendous profits from buying and selling human beings. As global trade, including cotton and sugar production, grew, so did regimes of enslavement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Slavery ended. Agriculture became more mechanized. New industrial opportunities popped up in cities amid a massive scale-up in manufacturing and consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Black people exercised agency in their lives by migrating from the rural South to economic opportunities in urban areas in the North. But as companies developed assembly lines, new managerial techniques and later automation, reducing jobs, they did so in service to white capitalists, Slaton said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCapitalism in America is racial capitalism,\u201d Slaton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To be sure, the Civil Rights era and integration ushered in sweeping changes for disadvantaged groups. \u201cIndividuals\u2019 lives are drastically changed,\u201d Slaton said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a hierarchical economy, and people of color are historically at the bottom. AI will exacerbate that.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the McKinsey report, Black workers are overrepresented in four of the top five occupations most at risk of automation. They include office support, production work, food services and mechanical installation and repair. Roughly three in four Black workers lack a college degree.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But in the past five years, one in every eight Black workers without a four-year degree has moved to a job that rewards experience, offers annual salaries above $42,000 and provides a path of upward mobility. These jobs include training and development specialists, and sales managers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem is that these paths are likely to disappear, too. Between 2030 and 2060, the report says, generative AI is expected to replace about half these jobs that don\u2019t require college degrees.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To avoid being displaced, the report argues that workers should gain skills that machines cannot do. Those \u201cfuture-proof skills\u201d include \u201csocioemotional understanding\u201d and \u201ccomfort with ambiguity.\u201d Occupational health and safety specialists and special education teachers are two examples of occupations that use those skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the tech industry, workers should not merely know how to use a \u201cspecific coding language to code formulaically,\u201d but should instead understand \u201ccomputational and statistical principles in order to troubleshoot and solve problems with machine-generated code,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>\u201cCapitalism in America is racial capitalism.\u201d<\/p><cite>Amy Slaton, a professor of history at Drexel University in Philadelphia<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s true for any technological development, said James Pristas, professor in the department of computing and information technology at the College of Southern Nevada in North Las Vegas. Pristas teaches an introduction to artificial intelligence course at the school, a public community college where more than half the student body is Latino, Asian or Black.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s too soon to know how generative AI will shape the workforce, he said. The immediate impact, though, is how students are using it to complete their assignments, which makes it difficult for professors like him to assess them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a major step change that is going to change the way we teach and the way kids learn,\u201d Pristas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So can generative AI be deployed in a way that narrows the racial wealth gap?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think that\u2019s a question of power and access,\u201d said Gibbons, a PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. \u201cWho gets to say what generative AI is, and for whom?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generative AI tools are already used to evaluate job candidates through keyword requirements, multiple choice exams and even voice or video analysis. They <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/racial-justice\/how-artificial-intelligence-might-prevent-you-from-getting-hired\">risk engaging in employment discrimination<\/a> by excluding people based on race, religion, gender identity and other protected classes, according to the ACLU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last fall, President Biden signed an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/presidential-actions\/2023\/10\/30\/executive-order-on-the-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-development-and-use-of-artificial-intelligence\/\">executive order on developing AI safely and responsibly.<\/a> And in January, the administration said that major <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2024\/01\/29\/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-key-ai-actions-following-president-bidens-landmark-executive-order\/\">AI companies must now report their safety tests<\/a> to the government. \u201cMy Administration cannot \u2014 and will not \u2014 tolerate the use of AI to disadvantage those who are already too often denied equal opportunity and justice,\u201d Biden\u2019s executive order says.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Congress has yet to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/articles\/how-congress-can-secure-bidens-ai-legacy\/\">enact legislation<\/a> on generative AI. Meanwhile, state and local governments are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/articles\/why-states-and-localities-are-acting-on-ai\/\">writing their own rules<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to McKinsey, generative AI can be used with an equity lens by establishing regulatory guardrails, training it on unbiased and \u201cauthentically representative\u201d datasets, growing \u201cdiverse tech talent,\u201d engaging all stakeholders in the design of new products and encouraging leaders to use the technology only where it can make unbiased decisions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The goal is to \u201chave all people and communities \u2014 including Black communities, previously left behind by seismic shifts in tech \u2014 benefit from this amazing technology transformation,\u201d the report says in closing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe time to act is now, using the foresight of past transformations as a guide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/inside-publici\/newsletters\/watchdog-newsletter\/generative-ai-racial-wealth-gap\/\">What will generative AI mean for the racial wealth gap?\u00a0<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/\">Center for Public Integrity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/inside-publici\/newsletters\/watchdog-newsletter\/generative-ai-racial-wealth-gap\/\">Center for Public Integrity<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/publicintegrity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/GettyImages-1355305689-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C540&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image\" alt=\"Two men work at a restaurant cooking burgers on a grill and at a prep station. Generative AI has the potential to eliminate their jobs.\"><\/figure>\n<p>Kelcey Gibbons, a doctoral student who studies African Americans in technology and the Black\u00a0middle class, is not quite sure what she makes of generative artificial intelligence and how it might impact the racial wealth gap.\u00a0 Gibbons anticipates that generative AI will force organizations to rethink which skills matter in the workplace, aggravating existing inequalities without [\u2026]<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/inside-publici\/newsletters\/watchdog-newsletter\/generative-ai-racial-wealth-gap\/\">What will generative AI mean for the racial wealth gap?\u00a0<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/publicintegrity.org\/\">Center for Public Integrity<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10867,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[932,3500],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10867"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1503190"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1563883,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503190\/revisions\/1563883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1503190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1503190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1503190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}