It’s an untapped market.
With new technology, there is always a yin and yang. When Web 2.0 came about 10 to 15 years ago, nobody was making six figures as a social media manager. Now somebody can feed their family because of the strength of the internet. There will be advantages like that with AI; on the opposite end, there will be people who lose jobs because of it.
The adoption rate is always slow in the beginning. People are justifiably skeptical as we turn the corner into a digital unknown. Myself included.
I tell melanated people—jump on that! Learn how to use AI. Because now with ChatGPT, when someone asks you for a business plan, you’re like, Bet, I can get that to you tonight. You can do all these things. Previously you would have had to spend a lot of money to hire someone to do it. And that would have stopped you from moving forward because you don’t know what next steps to take. So that’s why I say it’s like reparations. It puts us on an equal level.
Your films exclusively revolve around Black characters and stories, but not everyone approaches AI with the same care you do. What do you say to the criticisms that suggest AI is bringing about a new form of digital minstrelsy?
That’s kind of what I was talking about earlier, how there’s a ying and yang to all of this. There are always going to be bad actors who take these tools and do negative things. It’s easy to clone a voice; you only need five seconds. The same way people try to scam on Twitter or Instagram, or jump into your DMs trying to sell you crypto using a fake profile. That exists and will always exist. With any new technology that comes out you’re always going to have that potential threat there.
Education around AI is so important because we are not only headed that way, we are in the revolution right now. Whether we want to be aware of it or not, it’s happening. Within our communities we are not having a lot of conversations about it, you know, but everybody else is. I did the MIT AI filmmaking hackathon, and it was 90 percent Asian. I think there was one other Black dude and a handful of white people. Every other community knows the value of AI, and they’re using it, whether they’re talking about it or not. We just seem hesitant to jump into these conversations.
Is your hope to change the perception of how Black people engage with AI?
All my media I make is Black. But especially when I make the AI films, I purposefully make a point to imagine new worlds. There’s nothing wrong with Tyler Perry—no shade to him—but I want us to get excited like when we saw Wakanda or Lovecraft Country or whatever Jordan Peele makes. There is a feeling of, We’ve been waiting for images, movies, and narratives like this. So I think I get such a good response, and so many people DM me, because other people want to create stories like this.
