Mutale Nkonde Dreaming Black Futures Symposium

Mutale Nkonde is a filmmaker and Emmy winning producer. In 2019 she started AI for the People, a communications firm that focuses on the future of racial justice. In 2021 they produced their first short, Blackness Unbound is an experimental documentary that gives the viewer a fly on the wall view of a discussion between six Black people as they consider how the tenants of afrofuturism help them navigate race in America after the murder of George Floyd.

Nkode started AI for People after co-authoring a report, Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech, which called on the tech sector to pay closer attention to the impact predictive algorithms have on Black communities. In 2019, Nkonde worked as an AI Policy advisor and led a team that introduced the Algorithmic Accountability Act, the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act, and the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act (reintroduced in 2021) to the US House of Representatives.

The inability for these bills to move out of committee convinced her of the need to increase policymaker understanding about the racial justice implications of tech. She then turned back to filmmaking to illustrate the impact advanced technologies have on Black Lives.