{"id":22430,"date":"2024-09-25T19:55:39","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T23:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/in-print\/volume-112\/volume-112-issue-6-june-2024\/artificial-intelligence-afrofuturism-and-economic-justice\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T11:12:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:12:45","slug":"artificial-intelligence-afrofuturism-and-economic-justice","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/in-print\/volume-112\/volume-112-issue-6-june-2024\/artificial-intelligence-afrofuturism-and-economic-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial Intelligence, Afrofuturism, and Economic Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p2\"><i>Artificial intelligence (AI) work technologies have been lauded for their efficiency, cost savings, and ability to democratize access to work. Indeed, AI work technologies make a \u201cplanetary labor market\u201d possible. But what does this mean for the future of work for Black workers both in the Diaspora and on the African continent? Building on the Afrofuturist works of Derrick Bell and N. K. Jemisin, this Essay argues that concepts from Afrofuturism hold insights into how to regulate AI technologies for the good of all rather than a select few. In Part I, the Essay discusses the notion of \u201csacrificial lambs\u201d as a narrative device for challenging the mantra of innovation or \u201cprogress\u201d at any price. Part I starts with an examination of Ursula K. Le Guin\u2019s <\/i>The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas <i>as an example of the trope of sacrificial lambs in colorblind science fiction and contrasts it with Derrick Bell\u2019s Afrofuturist fiction <\/i>The Space Traders<i>, where the sacrificial lambs are people of African descent. Part I also offers an alternative ending to Derrick Bell\u2019s <\/i>The Space Traders <i>that highlights a linked-fate hypothesis as the path to racial justice in the future of work. In Part II, I contrast the notion of a sacrificial lamb with Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres\u2019s notion of racialized Americans as the \u201cminer\u2019s canary\u201d for what ails our society, and I surface examples of how Black workers are already being harmed in the AI revolution of work. In Part III, I deploy N. K. Jemisin\u2019s rebuttal, <\/i>The Ones Who Stay and Fight<i>, to show how an embrace of human vulnerability, linked-fate thinking, the Ubuntu philosophy of interconnected personhood, and equity by design can ensure that the AI revolution works for all. <\/i><\/p>\n<p>Continue reading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2024\/09\/Ajunwa_AIAfrofuturism.pdf\"><em>Artificial Intelligence, Afrofuturism, and Economic Justice<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2024\/09\/Ajunwa_AIAfrofuturism.pdf\" class=\"pdfemb-viewer\" style=\"\" data-width=\"max\" data-height=\"max\" data-toolbar=\"bottom\" data-toolbar-fixed=\"off\">Ajunwa_AIAfrofuturism<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Artificial intelligence (AI) work technologies have been lauded for their efficiency, cost savings, and ability to democratize access to work. Indeed, AI work technologies make a \u201cplanetary labor market\u201d possible. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13235,"featured_media":0,"parent":22046,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"abstract.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-22430","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13235"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22430"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23212,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22430\/revisions\/23212"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/georgetown-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}