Learn Something New
As Morgan Boals, a student in The New School’s BA/BFA dual-degree program, was researching an undergraduate thesis topic related to tech and justice, she recalled an AI software program she’d been introduced
to in the AI, Creativity, and Social Justice class—Hugging Face's Stable Diffusion. She began experimenting with it, inputting the prompt “white supremacy.”
Morgan continued to input phrases, among them "cultural appropriation," "social justice," and "white culture." In response, the AI generated images of protests and other activist events, corporate logos, and slogans. Some of the images were distinctly
disturbing: One response to the prompt "white culture" showed a gathering of people protesting in favor of white supremacy.
"I wanted to see what visual outputs AI would generate when prompted with terms used in discussions about race and technology," Boals explained. "Humans do not share the same definitions or understandings of these terms, and I was curious how AI would
respond and what the outputs could tell us about the data used to feed the AI."
To understand what AI produces, it is important to know about the enormous data sets that drive it. AI relies on data sets that are representations of past human behavior. Consequently, there is a risk embedded in AI systems: that they will mirror the
biases inherent in data, thereby perpetuating and even amplifying biases and inequities that exist in society.
Boals is interested in examining the ways in which visual culture reflects our beliefs, ideas, and cultural psychology. While walking around New York City as an undergraduate, she was often struck by the racial bias reflected in visual advertising.
"I think one of the most dangerous things about racism," Morgan said, "is it doesn't have to be intentional."
Boals is in her fifth year studying in both the BA Urban Studies program—led by faculty of the university's Schools of Public Engagement and Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts—and
Parsons' Communication Design program. She sought to create a project that allowed her to "cross-pollinate" her two fields of study. "I think that's really the beauty of the degrees I'm getting—how
they interact and intersect and reflect on one another," she said. "In the Urban Studies program, I learned about people and systems operating within urban environments. I applied my understanding of the rapidly evolving technology that is developing
in smart cities and used design skills to help communicate my insights."
In March 2023, for her senior thesis, she presented a symposium called "Racism by Design," a conversation between New School faculty members Jennifer Rittner, Sareeta Amrute,
and Jack Jin Gary Lee on the intersections of race, design, and technology. The three faculty members collaborated with her in planning the symposium, along with Lisa Betty, associate director of Lang's
Office of Civic Engagement and Social Justice (CESJ).
The symposium explored topics including the historical inaccessibility of technology to racially marginalized people and the use of new technological developments in policing as it affects people of color.
The idea for the symposium began in late 2022, when Boals was applying for a Lang CESJ Mini-grant, a small grant supporting social justice–related projects and research.
"I had to do a lot of reflecting on being a white woman and interacting with this topic," she said. "There are so many people of color in this field of study who are much greater experts than I could ever be as a senior in undergrad. So my goal was really
to prioritize those voices in our community at The New School and bring them in together."
Accessibility played a key role in Boals' presentation design. She created a handful of infographic cards for symposium attendees defining terms such as "technology" and "prejudice." She wanted these cards to be legible and easily understandable to someone
who might not have ever considered these topics in an academic sense before. Boals also ensured that the event was hybrid, so that people could attend virtually.
The design concept for the symposium was inspired in part by the work of sociologist Ruha Benjamin, author of Race After Technology, who discusses in her book the concept of "the glitch," a "mistake" that reflects bias on the part of the designer
of a technology.
As she progresses in her studies, Boals continues to seek opportunities to initiate discussion on racism and technology while always remaining mindful of her privilege as a white woman. "I sat with a lot of tension within myself when doing this symposium,"
she explained. "For white people, one of the most important things to employ on any anti-racism journey is to take time and simply listen to anyone trying to advocate for their experience."
Boals remains determined to do so while continuing to explore and spark discussion on these issues in tech and beyond.