Towards an Abolitionist AI: the role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities

TL;DR

This paper explores how Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) serve as abolitionist projects that challenge racial oppression in AI and computing, aiming to re-imagine AI as a tool for Black liberation and excellence.

Contribution

It conceptualizes HBCUs as abolitionist institutions and analyzes their potential to reshape AI to support Black life and counteract racial oppression in technology.

Findings

HBCUs function as abolitionist projects fostering Black excellence.

AI and computing have historically contributed to racial oppression.

HBCUs can lead a re-imagination of AI to promote Black liberation.

Abstract

Abolition is the process of destroying and then rebuilding the structures that impede liberation. This paper addresses the particular case of Black folk in the United States, but is relevant to the global decolonization movement. Using notions of abolition and infrastructures of feeling developed by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, I view Historically Black Colleges and Universities ( HBCUs ) as a particular kind of abolitionist project, created for the explicit purpose of nurturing and sustaining Black excellence particularly within the sciences. I then examine how artificial intelligence (AI) in particular and computing in general have contributed to racial oppression and the further confinement and diminishing of Black existence. I conclude by examining how the space held by HBCUs in computing might contribute to a re-imagining of AI as a technology that enhances the possibility and actualization of Black life.