Blavity recently held its highly anticipated AfroTech conference this weekend.
Held in Houston for the first time in the event’s history, roughly 37,500 participants took part in the tech event. Notable speakers included the founder of Blavity Morgan DeBaun, artist Tip “T.I.” Harris, founder of Lumi and athlete Colin Kaepernick, as well as actor and founder of TransTech Social Enterprises, Angelica Ross.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore also took part in the conference.
Multiple topics were discussed at the summit. While Kaepernick discussed AI, T.I., Hannah Bronfman, and Derrick Johnson discussed entrepreneurship in Black communities. Rashad Robinson and Kendrick Sampson also took to the stage to discuss civic engagement that extends beyond voting. Meanwhile, Google demonstrated its AI tool, Gemini. Gemini can reportedly be used for multiple things, including writing, planning and learning.
AFROTECH™ welcomes https://t.co/HWzb6TjeDT and Tobe Nwigwe as featured speakers for power-packed Black tech conference. https://t.co/WTwRWscNxZ
— AfroTech (@AfroTech) November 12, 2024
“AfroTech Conference 2024 exceeded all expectations, creating an electric environment where connections were forged that will drive the future of technology and business,” said Blavity founder DeBaun per a statement. “Houston was buzzing with extraordinary energy, sparking conversations that will lead to business growth, new executive hires, and product innovation.”
Musician will.i.am also took to the event to discuss how artists can use AI in their work whether it be in music, another art form or another industry. During his panel, the music mogul emphasized that AI should not be used to replace the creativity of an individual.
“What determines an artist’s success is the method of attempt, fail, repeat, until you attempt and you make it. Even after that, you still have to attempt again after you make it. That’s part of the journey,” said will.i.am. “All the AI does is allow you to organize better and access things that will help with strategizing, marketing, improving your business model, etc.”
The musicians’ statements echo several complaints that many have made about the latest intersection between AI and art.
Many have opposed advertising AI art as art in a technical sense. Currently, generative AI can sell for thousands, with an artificially created painting of codebreaker Alan Turing recently selling for up to almost $1.1 million at an auction. Critics, however, claim that art that is not created from the human mind is not creative enough to be considered art.
Meanwhile, proponents of using AI in the creation of art maintain that it is a natural progression of the art world.
“Where Marcel Duchamp refused us the ability to see art in the same way as before, Ai-Da refuses us the capacity to look at the artist (and by extension the human) in the same way again,” said researcher Lucy Seale per The Art Newspaper. “What it means to be a human is changing, whether we like it or not, and this is perhaps why Ai-Da has proved so disturbing. She is reflecting this change, perhaps rather unsubtly.”
