In the early days of the Internet –long before Wi-Fi, social media, and influencers were a part of daily life– tech experts and scholars sounded the alarm about how a ‘digital divide’ would impact Black Americans. At the time (think the late 90s and early 2000s), the ‘digital divide’ referred to a lower likelihood of computer access and the skills required to use one. Flash forward to 2024, and the picture is very, very different: Black Americans, and young Black people especially, are considered digital trailblazers; the ways Black Twitter shaped culture are just one example. 

Though those initial worries about how Black citizens would be impacted or left behind by technology have dissipated, significant issues still loom large; they just look different. And while the digital divide still exists, especially for people in rural communities without access to high-speed internet, more pressing concerns for Black America now are representation in tech and how AI’ll impact us. Enter Alondra Nelson, Ph.D., one of the foremost scholars and researchers working to ensure that the future of tech is fair and equitable for all. 

“Part of my kind of life mission has been to think about the hurdles in place and opportunities to lift up,” Nelson tells BET.com. From 2021 to 2023, Nelson served as acting director at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and a deputy assistant to President Joe Biden; her work aimed to ensure technology and innovation meet standards for ethics, racial and gender equity, and access.

“There have been times when technology has been damaging to Black communities. So I try to work in that space of having high hopes for the most beneficial, innovative technology, and also being mindful of a history and a present that sometimes makes these incredibly powerful tools dangerous for communities of color.” 

Prime example: the story of Porcha Woodruff, a Black woman in Detroit who was eight months pregnant when police showed up at her door to arrest her for robbery and carjacking; she’d been wrongly identified by facial recognition technology. Experts like Nelson say that AI is rife with bias and discrimination, and Black people are more likely to be targeted by surveillance tools, too.

During her time in the White House, Nelson worked with the Biden administration to help draft a blueprint for an “AI Bill of Rights” to make sure tech was safe, respected people’s privacy, and avoided bias and discrimination that can cause actual harm to the most vulnerable people.”As an African American, I have had to look in the face honestly with the ways tech falls short of our aspirations, particularly for the black community. The purpose of my work is to close that gap and make these tools ethical, responsible and beneficial for all of us, and the space we are now where that is not yet the case.”

There’s a lot to do: one of her studies from earlier this year found that chatbots were spreading inaccurate or misleading information about voting and the election, revealing a troublesome scenario that included links to nonexistent websites and wrong data about polling places. “One of the things we found was about disenfranchisement. So if you have a felony and you served your time, are you permitted to vote in the state of Nevada? Several of these chatbots answered that question wrong. All of this was very worrisome.”

While she’s no longer serving in the White House, she’s still doing vital work; the Maryland native is now a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, a research center where Albert Einstein once served. It’s probably fair to say she was born: both her parents worked in tech, and she grew up immersed in and enamored with tech, science, and math. And though the incoming administration will likely not prioritize her field of study as the last one did, she remains hopeful about a fair, tech-filled future. “AI policy or AI ethics, is a field that has really been pioneered, in part by Black women,” she says. “This is a field in which we have played a really big role, so I'm hopeful that we will continue to lead in that space.”