Towards an Abolitionist AI: the role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Abstract: Abolition is the process of destroying and then rebuilding the structures that impede liberation. This paper addresses the particular case of Black folk in the United States, but is relevant to the global decolonization movement. Using notions of abolition and infrastructures of feeling developed by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, I view Historically Black Colleges and Universities ( HBCUs ) as a particular kind of abolitionist project, created for the explicit purpose of nurturing and sustaining Black excellence particularly within the sciences. I then examine how AI in particular and computing in general have contributed to racial oppression and the further confinement and diminishing of Black existence. I conclude by examining how the space held by HBCUs in computing might contribute to a re-imagining of AI as a technology that enhances the possibility and actualization of Black life.