Learn the Rules So You Can Bend Them: Why Black Women Are Needed in AI

Hopefully, by the time this reaches the World Wide Web, I won't be too late to jump on this bandwagon.

On February 22, 2026, the BAFTA Awards were held and broadcast ‘round the world. I've never watched this awards show and probably never will, but a moment at this year's show has gone viral for all the wrong reasons.

Actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage presenting an award when suddenly a voice from the crowd yelled, “N*gger!” Both Jordan and Lindo are Black, and they both recently starred in the wildly successful—and one of my new favorites—movie Sinners, which has a primarily Black cast with the supporting White actors portraying vampires. I won't get too deep into the love and hate that many seem to have for this movie because that's not the point I want to make, despite the fact that I think the movie is a masterpiece.

It was revealed that the man who yelled the slur has Tourette's, which can cause people affected by it to randomly say nasty things. I have a few thoughts about that, too, but I'll refrain from sharing them because that also is not the point I want to make.

Two days after this event, Google pushed out an AI-generated news alert that said, “How the Tourette's Fallout Unfolded at the BAFTA Film Awards…See more on N*ggers.” A company as large and as old as Google did this. Google Gemini is one of the most used AI programs on the market right now. Google. And they allowed a “slip-up” or a “glitch” like this to happen?

Why was it allowed to happen? Because there aren't enough Black people, people of color, or women training the models.

I'm still pretty early in my AI education journey. My goal is to blog about my findings and be an asset to tech companies as well as individuals, specifically thirty-something-year-old Black women looking to pivot towards tech. Most of my experience comes from experimenting with various AI models to see how they work. Basically, I stress these AI chatbots for the hell of it. When I see inconsistencies or they misinterpret my very intentional word choice, I make sure to correct them.

I often use AI as a feedback machine or for editing suggestions. Most of the feedback I receive from humans concerning my writing is positive, and the same is true for the feedback I receive from the machines; however, there is an issue with the machines. The machines can't always pick up when I'm being intentional when I use repetition for emphasis and flow or other nuances. I have to explain that I'm a poet first, then a creative writer, then a technical writer, so that I'm not judged too harshly for not writing my entire piece in perfect standard English.

There are a lot of things that AI gets wrong, especially when it comes to culture, context, and human interaction. The fact is, AI isn’t going anywhere. Doctors use it. Law enforcement uses it. Retail giants use it. Insurance companies use it. Even if you decide that you’re never going to intentionally use it, someone you know or a business you frequent likely uses it. Therein lies the problem that exists in every industry and in almost every facet of life in the United States: racism, sexism, and every other -ism will be an issue with AI because AI is trained by the very same people who perpetuate these things in real life.

Though I have my “out there” theories about what artificial intelligence really is, in the real world, artificial intelligence reflects the intelligence of the people training and using it. Even if you are not an official AI trainer, your data that lives on the internet, regardless of whether you permitted it to live there, is being used to train AI, whether you like it or not. That means that everyone from the gentlest, most philanthropic souls to the most evil, racist ones is unconsciously (sometimes it is conscious) influencing the tech and tools that affect us daily. This is what prompted me to start learning how to use it as a consumer.

In my little experiments, I’ve received a few offensive answers from some chatbots that I had to correct them on, which led to the realization that these companies need me. Not only me specifically, but people who don’t fit the typical description of those who make and program the tools we use (or that use us) every day. The same way many people have been speaking even louder over the past several years about the lack of representation in movies, media, and politics, is the same way we have to speak up and make a difference in science and technology. This is coming from a Black woman who blogs about tarot cards.

Just because I have an interest in esoteric subjects doesn’t mean that I’m not knowledgeable about science and technology. If anything, my willingness to explore non-traditional topics makes me and others like me the perfect candidates to pursue careers in tech, and more specifically, artificial intelligence. We are the ones who need to chip in our two cents to help shape these things that will ultimately become greater fixtures in most of our lives. 

Perhaps if there were more of us (spiritual, non-white, non-male, non-rich) in this field, Google wouldn’t have needed to issue an apology for casually using a slur as part of a headline. If attitudes were different offline, then the incident at the BAFTA Awards would’ve never happened. I understand the man who said it has a medical condition that makes him have uncontrollable outbursts, but I argue that was something that resided in his spirit for it to even come out like that in the first place. I digress.

Here’s my call to action: Black people—Black women—familiarize yourselves with this technology. Yes, it’s polluting the water and destroying the atmosphere. However, simply refusing to use it is not going to stop it. Learn the rules so you can know how and where to bend them.

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