MARTHA’S VINEYARD – Brian Owens & Chester Felts of the Black & Brown Collective (BABCO) held an immersive entrepreneurship workshop on Martha’s Vineyard centered around a conversation on artificial intelligence. “Artificial intelligence is here to stay, if we don’t understand the technology, the technology will take away our ability to be successful,” explains Brian Owens, BABCO Co-Founder.
It was a thought echoed by Angela Allen, Associate Director of Community Engagement at the Roxbury YMCA where proceeds from the workshop were donated. “If you do not get on board you will get left behind.” For Dr. Roger Mitchell, President and Howard University Hospital and 126th President of the National Medical Association, the concept of encouraging youth within the black & brown community to get involved with artificial intelligence early is an action he describes as ‘critical’ to ensuring representation is included as the technology evolves. “Technology is only as good as the information you put into it,” explains Dr. Mitchell. “It doesn’t generate new ideas that are not put into it, and so the data that we use to put into it has to be one that’s free of bias.”
It’s work that Earnest Offley, Chief People and Patient Officer at AI Care, does daily and spoke to these efforts during a panel discussion at the BABCO Entrepreneurship Summit. “(Being) on the stage as a queer black man having a conversation about artificial intelligence gives the youth the ability to see themselves in someone like me to even wonder what it is that we’re doing,” says Offley. “We have to understand that this is going to be the new way of the world and understand how do we navigate this space and how do we make sure that people like myself are able to show up in ai and the ai is representative of our experience.”
The ultimate goal from the summit? Raise funds for the YMCA while simultaneously encouraging entrepreneurship centered around utilizing and training AI to work in a capacity that works for them.
“We want everyone to be an entrepreneur,” says Owen. “We want everyone to have a side hustle. we want everyone to create access for everyone who looks like us in an underserved community that needs help.”
To learn more about BABCO, visit their website.
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Emmalyn Reid 