Karen Hunter and guest host Seena Ghaznavi took a hard look at the risks of artificial intelligence on Hunter’s SiriusXM Urban View show, questioning what the technology could mean for Black communities, jobs, creativity and the people whose work is being used to build increasingly powerful systems.
Hunter said she has been reluctant to fully embrace AI because of concerns about who controls the technology and what happens to the information fed into it.
“If I’m engaging with this, I’m making it smarter,” said Hunter. “If I’m not in it, if we’re not in it, then it’s going to erase us.”
The radio host likened the moment to the rise of Black Twitter, arguing that Black users helped make the platform culturally influential without sharing in its eventual financial value before also citing reports of workers in Kenya being hired for AI-related labor, saying she struggles with companies building enormous valuations while relying on lower-paid workers abroad.
Ghaznavi said AI could drive breakthroughs while also creating serious new threats.
“I think what’s going to happen is we’re going to solve four really big problems and create three new really big problems,” he explained, noting possible advances in physics and biology, but said bioterrorism is among her biggest concerns, particularly as powerful models become more widely accessible.
After playing remarks from producer Rick Rubin comparing AI-assisted coding to punk rock’s democratization of music, Ghaznavi rejected the idea that access to a tool automatically produces meaningful art.
“When it comes to AI and it comes to the creative part of AI, it’s, as the kids say, mid,” he said.
Ghaznavi argued that creativity still requires “taste,” judgment, study and lived experience. “You don’t just wake up and have a tool that makes everything for you. You actually have to study. You have to do the work.”
Hunter agreed, saying people must demand more from themselves and the technology. “It is imperative that we raise that bar, that we demand more.”
