AI and the Myth of Intelligence
Banned Histories of Race in America
The problem with AI isn’t so much the artificial part as it is the intelligence part. I’ve written more about this here, but basically, how we understand intelligence in this country isn’t a whole lot more than white supremacy. The short version is that one dipshit bigot created the IQ test, another created the SATs and both did so with the purpose of excluding Black people from education. Many other likeminded racists in charge of educational institutions had the same goals, welcomed these fraudulent metrics into their schools and quicker than you can light a cross, the country based its cultural understanding of intelligence on white supremacy.
The effects for Black people are obvious, but really, there are effects for anyone seeking an education and we all see them. Education is supposed to be about growing ones’ intelligence and discovery of personal freedom and finding a well-paying career. Or at least that’s what we’re told. College especially is supposed to be a great equalizer providing opportunities for all. Instead it’s a culturally mandatory, overburdening debt machine widening racial wealth gaps.
Since the arrival of ChatGPT every media outlet in America won’t shut up about how students are ruining the educational system by letting AI write their papers. Kids these days! No one wants to work anymore! Other whiny privileged sayings! The truth is that students believing to enter a trusted and beneficial system only to discover they’ve been thrust into a structure of exploitation will obviously do whatever they can to make it as painless as possible.
Our real fear is that AI will remove humans from human experience, but again, that’s white supremacy. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a pro-AI post. All you need to do is look at the medical algorithms blocking Black people from medical care or courtroom software that’s been condemning Black people to longer sentences for a decade or racist facial recognition technology or the self-driving cars that can’t recognize darker skin or, or, or… The pen is only as good as the writer and if we let it white supremacy will continue scrawling our future in blood.