AI's Impact on the Diversity Debate: Fortt Media March Forth скачать в хорошем качестве

AI's Impact on the Diversity Debate: Fortt Media March Forth

Jon Fortt and Jayson Council reunite for the annual March Forth conversation under the Fortt Media umbrella, discussing AI, diversity, workplace culture, and the stakes of this technological moment. Jayson is heading to South by Southwest. He is also working on a piece co-written with Dax Devlin Ross called "Raging With the Machine" — a deliberate flip on the band's ethos. The central question: instead of fighting technology, how do we strategically engage with it, especially for communities historically left behind? His framing device is John Henry — the Black steel-driving man who raced and beat a steam drill during the Industrial Revolution, then died from the effort. Jayson's reframe: did John Henry actually win? He was a martyr, yes — but what if he'd had the opportunity to program the machine instead of compete with it? Jayson describes his own evolution from thinking he was smarter than AI to learning to leverage it, and asks what John Henry might have gained from the same shift. AI, DEI, and the New Digital Divide Jayson introduces the concept of DGAI — reframing DEI around AI. The systemic gaps DEI tried to address (digital divide, generational disconnect, underrepresentation) are now being amplified by AI at warp speed. His key warning: you may not be replaced by AI, but you may be replaced by someone who knows how to use it. Jon adds that most AI is trained on English-language data sets compiled predominantly by white, male, Western populations — embedding cultural assumptions into the tools. He illustrates this with a Bangkok conference story where he reconnected with a high school friend leading Typhoon, a large language model built in native Thai — arguing localized AI is essential. If your AI doesn't think in your language and culture, a competitor with a better data set will beat you. Jayson's response: replace "DEI practitioner" with cultural barometer. Getting the language right is just the start — missing cultural nuance is still a failure, and that requires ongoing, living engagement. Culture Is Alive Jon raises a key challenge: culture isn't static. He traces how terminology in the Black community has evolved across generations, noting that even within communities preferences differ and shift constantly. The Drake vs. Kendrick moment gets a nod. The lesson: a one-time diversity consultation can't fill a data set permanently. Without sustained engagement, you end up like the Steve Buscemi "Hello Fellow Kids" meme — saying the words but missing everything underneath. Climbing vs. Camping Both men agree the pivotal individual choice right now is between climbing — learning AI, creating with it — and camping, staying put and falling further behind than any previous technological wave. Jon shares his own experience using Claude Code to build a Bible glossary database, describing how even without deep coding knowledge he could direct the process meaningfully. Jayson echoes this, noting his productivity has expanded dramatically since learning to work with AI, while still requiring a human touch on the outputs. Jayson closes by teasing a developing framework around Source, Soul, and Solid — using source and soul to address AI's cultural deficits and translating them into best practices for companies to minimize cultural insensitivity in their AI deployments. The throughline: AI has already left the station. The question isn't whether to engage, but how. Those who rage with the machine — intentionally and culturally — will shape it. Those who don't will be shaped by it.