Technology Is Building a Future Without People of Color in Mind

First, the futurist Amy Webb told the audience of journalists, librarians and foundation managers that they could easily be duped by the ever-growing purveyors of artificial intelligence. Images of their faces could be affixed to others' bodies, their voices to impostors. Media people have acknowledged to pollsters that they are so focused on the present that they don't pay close attention to what might be in store for them in five, 10 or 20 years. Later in her talk Wednesday before the Knight Media Forum in Miami, Webb told people of color that they weren't thought about when the creators of self-driving cars, GPS navigators, robotics and other such technologies were being developed. "My question is, what does all this mean for communities of color?" (video) asked Sara Lomax-Reese, president and CEO of black talk-formatted WURD radio in Philadelphia. She was one of about 500 at the sold-out conference sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. "It's not good," replied Webb. "Any person of color who's ever felt invisible, you're totally invisible to the networks. Right?" said the author of the 2016 book "The Signals Are Talking: Why Today's Fringe Is Tomorrow's Mainstream: Forecast and Take Action on Tomorrow's Trends, Today."