Kapor Center goes to CBC 2024

Last week we were honored to join our grant partners in an amazing week of programming at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference in DC!?

Our team joined and sponsored panels throughout the week to talk about the impacts of AI, increasing representation in tech, and how we can all work together to create tech for good.?

Afua Bruce from ANB Advisory Group moderated our first panel on AI featuring Nicole Jefferson at Dell Technologies; Chanelle Hardy, at Google;? Dr. Nicol Turner-Lee, from the Brookings Institution; and Dr. Safiya Noble, of UCLA. We also had the distinct pleasure to be joined by Congressmembers Barbara Lee & Yvette Clarke.?

The Kapor Center’s Nate Jones spoke on our second panel, “Scaling for Success,” a panel on Black entrepreneurship put together by the Black Innovation Alliance. Nate spoke alongside Chanelle Hardy, from Google; Kamirria Wallace, of Black & Scholared; and Ashley Scott, from Circle.?

Here are some of our key takeaways from these meaningful conversations:

• Inclusion at the development level is crucial–people of color must be included in technology development and design to attain true educational empowerment.
• Algorithmic bias is emerging as one of the key civil rights issues of our time, with especially serious implications within the criminal justice system.
• Policymakers must be proactive about understanding threats posed by new and emerging technologies; legislation must address and protect constituents from criminal uses of AI (e.g. Congresswoman Clarke’s DEEPFAKES Accountability? Act).?
• The digital divide–between those with access to internet connectivity and those without–is real, and actively prevents those without connectivity from accessing the benefits and power of technology.

The work continues!