AI and the Future of the Discipline

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Panel Title: AI and the Future of the Discipline
Conference Track: Theory, Practice & Struggle Track
Primary Contact: Dr. Rasheed J. Atwater


Presenter: Dr. Rasheed J. Atwater (Individual Lifetime Member)
1 Drexel Drive, New Orleans, LA 70125
989-475-6643
ratwater@xula.edu
Xavier University of Louisiana
Abstract:
AI and the Threat to the African American Family Ecology
Designed to synthesize the mundane and make our daily lives more efficient, artificial intelligence (AI) has vastly changed the lives of African Americans over the last ten years. Although growing in popularity and unavoidability, many questions about its impact on African Americans are still to be studied. Is this technology beneficial to African American communities? Can this technology become serviceable to the global African culture? How will new environmental technology influence humanity's connection to the land? Utilizing the Afrocentric Paradigm, the presenter will explore some threats of AI to the African American family ecology by focusing on its impact on family creation, environmentalism, cultural retention, and agency reduction. To combat these threats, the presenter will offer culturally centered commons as revolutionary tools in the fight for self-sufficiency.

Presenter: Dr. David “Kalonji” Walton (Institutional Member)
517-894-1479
dwalton@wcu.edu
Western Carolina University
Abstract:
Deep Fakes: The Internet, AI, and the Attack on Authentic African Diasporic Identity
With the rise of troubling movements in the Americas, such as those that claim that African descendants are not actually descended from Africa, but instead are Native Americans have spread via the internet. Using history, historical classic reference points, and Afrocentricity, this presentation will engage and interrogate the use of AI generated deep fake images, misdated images, and geographically mislabeled images to further this misinformation.




Presenter: Dr. Tarik Richardson (Lifetime Member, Pending)
(541) 632-0580
tricha31@xula.edu
Xavier University of Louisiana
Abstract:
The Cultural Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Afrofuturism
This presentation seeks to explore the ethics of AI and it’s uses in an academic classroom. Furthermore, this presentation will explore the cultural implication of such technology, the concept of Afrofuturism and their relationship to traditional African ethics, philosophy, and cosmology.

Sub Unit

• Theory, Practice & Struggle

Chair

• Alphonso Simpson, University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh

Individual Presentations

• AI and the Threat to the African American Family Ecology - Rasheed Atwater, Xavier University of Louisiana

• Deep Fakes: The Internet, AI, and the Attack on Authentic African Diasporic Identity - David Walton, Western Carolina Univserity

• The Cultural Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Afrofuturism - Tarik Richardson, Xavier University of Louisiana