When: Thursday, April 2, 2020 - 6pm EST

Where: ONLINE VIA ZOOM:
Register in advance for this meeting: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/uJAvcO6qrj4uqk8hhaLsFr56VZohmaIzRQ
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Not The Only One (N'TOO) is the multigenerational memoir of one black American family told from the “mind” of an artificial intelligence (AI) of evolving intellect. It is a voice-interactive AI entity designed, trained, and aligned with the needs and ideals of black and brown people who are drastically underrepresented in the tech sector. Not only does NTOO look like and emanate data derived from the position of blackness, it is also designed and programmed by us. 

Imagine it is forty years in the future. Two of the three people upon whom an AI named N'TOO is based have died. However, their stories, thoughts, hopes, and dreams live on in the AI. The great grandchildren of the oldest contributor can get to know their elder through conversation. The elder will be able to respond to those great-grandchildren with wisdom learned in her life. This information can be presented in the context of ideas and future technologies that will be available in forty years. The AI is a place for ever-evolving stories that sustain, advise, and inform. It has the potential to be an eternal living documentation born out of oral histories, with the particularity of culture and space to hold and honor stories that represent the breadth of human expression.

Stephanie Dinkins is a transmedia artist who creates platforms for dialog about artificial intelligence (AI) as it intersects race, gender, aging, and our future histories. She is particularly driven to work with communities of color to co-create more inclusive, fair and ethical artificial intelligent ecosystems. Dinkins’ art practice employs lens-based practices, emerging technologies and community engagement to confront questions of bias in AI, consciousness, data sovereignty and social equity. Investigations into the contradictory histories, traditions, knowledge bases and philosophies that form/in-form society at large underpin her thought and art production.

Blog Post Reflections

AI: An opportunity to reimagine an old-world anew by Francine D. Spang-Willis