33. BIPOC-Centered AI: A Critical Look at Inclusivity in Technology with Ajia Allen

Also available on YouTube!

In the second episode of our AI series for leaders, Ajia Allen, Owner and Principal Strategist of Digalyne, a digital strategy agency, joins me to discuss the importance of and need for diversity and inclusivity in the development of generative AI tools. 

We kick things off by exploring the meaning of BIPOC – Black, Indigenous, and People of Color – as a term highlighting the importance of including Black and Indigenous communities alongside other people of color in the development of AI technology.

Ajia sheds light on the tech industry's historical underrepresentation and how the term "minority-led and BIPOC-centered" is a call to action. 

We discuss the potential biases in widely used AI models due to lack of diversity in data and Ajia advocates for a responsible and critical approach to AI usage. 

She also emphasizes the ongoing efforts of organizations in establishing ethical AI and governance committees to scrutinize AI outputs, especially in response to instances of discrimination and bias.

We celebrate the unsung heroes from minority communities who have been pivotal in addressing these issues for years. Ajia stresses the importance of recognizing their contributions and building upon their insights for a more inclusive and responsible AI landscape. 

Finally, we explore the proactive role of individual users in providing feedback on AI outputs and the significance of representation, analysis, due diligence, and the creation of governance plans when adopting AI tools in business.

This is a can’t-miss conversation and opportunity for us to build better AI technology together!

In this episode, you’ll:

• Learn the meaning of BIPOC and why it's a crucial term, emphasizing the inclusion of Black and Indigenous communities alongside people of color, and recognizing their unique experiences.

• Gain insights into the importance of diversity and inclusivity in the development of generative AI tools, and understand the significance of being critical and responsible in their usage.

• Explore the potential biases in widely used AI models due to a lack of diversity in data, and learn about the ongoing efforts of organizations to establish ethical AI and governance committees for scrutiny.

• Celebrate the often overlooked contributions of individuals from minority communities who have been working tirelessly for years to address biases in AI, contributing to a more inclusive and responsible AI landscape.

• Get practical tips on being a proactive user of AI tools, including the importance of representation, analysis, due diligence, and the creation of governance plans when considering their adoption in business.

Episode Correction: The AI tool mentioned in the show as Anthropology's Claude should be Anthropic’s Claude.

Mentioned in This Episode: 

• Digalyne’s Website: https://www.digalyne.com/ 

• Digalyne’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/digalyne_/

• Digalyne’s: https://www.linkedin.com/company/digalyne-consulting 

• Work with Digalyne: https://tinyurl.com/digalyne 

• Book a Free Call with SproutHR: www.sprouthr.co/call 

Transcription for Episode 33 - BIPOC-Centered AI: A Critical Look at Inclusivity in Technology with Ajia Allen

Ashley Cox (she/her) (00:03.266)

Welcome to the Impact Ripple Podcast, the go-to source for hiring and leadership made simple, doable, and fun for visionary female business owners. I'm your host, Ashley Cox, author, certified HR expert, and founder of Sprout HR. And I believe that you don't have to change who you are to be a great leader because you already are one. Join me as we kiss uncertainty and overwhelm goodbye and say hello to the tools and support you need to grow a profitable, sustainable, impactful team with more confidence and ease. 

On today's episode, Ajia Allen joins me for a powerful conversation around diversity and representation in the digital and artificial intelligence space. Owner and principal strategist of Digalyne, Ajia Allen is a native to the Washington, D.C. metro area. She's a certified member of the Project Management Institute and scholar in the Master of Business Administration, Master of Arts in Strategic Communications and Digital Marketing, and Bachelor of Arts for Studies in Communications and Marketing Management. Ajia is a advocate for digital equity and agile systems that lead to digital innovation within underrepresented business communities. Digalyne is also a recognized fellow of Impact Ventures and Bunker Labs accelerated programs. 

In this episode, Ajia shares about the importance of diverse and underrepresented voices and contributions in the tech space. How as business owners and leaders, it's critical for us to slow down, research, and be intentional about the use of any new technology in our business. And she calls us to take action in being proactive collaborators in the development of AI and other technologies. I love Ajia's passion for being agile focused and human centered in her approach to business and digital strategy. Because I believe when we get the people part right, everything else falls into place. So join me for my conversation with Ajia Allen.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (00:02.711)

Hey there and welcome to the Impact Ripple, Ajia. I am thrilled to have you on our show today. Thank you so much for being here.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (00:09.994)

Hi Ashley, thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be here as well. I've been following the Impact Ripple on your Instagram and I'm really excited to be able to share with you all as well.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (00:21.103)

Thank you so much. That means a lot to me. I know that it's a shared interest of ours because I was a guest on your show a few years ago, the Digital Riser series. For our listeners, it's a fantastic series. You should definitely check it out. Ajia and I had a really great conversation around hiring and building transformative teams for your small business, but she does a lot of work within the digital strategy space and has a lot of fantastic guests on talking high level content and information and strategies that really will help you build your digital and your online presence. 

So since then, you know, I've been following your work as well. And you wrote an article earlier this year, which is why we're sitting down having this conversation today around minority led and BIPOC centered AI models and why they're important. And I am not an AI expert. Ajia, you said you're not an AI expert, but I love your perspective and your take on this hot button topic because while AI isn't necessarily new, it really seems to have ramped up in the past year, right? Yeah, so Yeah, so we just wanted to kind of sit down and have a conversation around some of the impacts and considerations that we want for small businesses to be aware of when they're thinking about using AI and in our part of our AI series that we're doing is exploring all the different facets of AI and using that within your small business. So I'm excited to dive in. Let's go ahead and get started. Ajia, if you could tell us a little bit about your journey and the work that you do and how you came to be doing this work today.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (02:01.79)

Yeah, I'm happy to share. And again, thank you so much for allowing me to be here. As you said, number one, I am not an AI expert. There's just so many different elements of artificial intelligence. We'll dive into some of that into our later conversation, but I do want to preface and say that what I am is a digital strategist and also, of course, a digital project manager in helping all the folks who are the specialists come together and then tackle digital related projects, specifically and most notably for underrepresented business communities. And so my expertise in building Digalyne and our expertise is focused in the digital strategy related projects. 

And so digital integration, website development, digital marketing, all things digital are our wheelhouse, but even more so in bridging knowledge gaps, knowledge skills and resources gaps to close the digital divide in service of building digital equity. And it's not been a easy journey, as I'm sure you all, are likely already understand about building a business. But I've learned all the things, constantly learning. And I think because I was able to recognize, you know what? I don't have to do things traditionally. It's actually ideal that I don't structure the business model to be traditional and actually go against the grain, as well as going toward what COVID-19 presented to us. 

You have to know how to pivot and pivot often, things to kind of facilitate the times you know what I mean so the journey has been a roller coaster but in a good way of a lot of learning a lot of a lot of in just different strategy development. So I'm excited about that. And as a summary, Digalyne we are a digital strategy and implementation partner, again, focusing in those three buckets, digital integration, website development, and digital marketing. But I do take on more of a mission-driven type of focus in where, again, our focus is bridging that gap in digital equity. 

And so for us, that means working primarily representing business communities, black and brown owned organizations, women owned organizations, to be able to really help them understand the value as well as application of digital strategies. So in a nutshell, that's what we do, that's what we're about.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (04:34.259)

I love it so much. And one of the things that you and I really connected on when we first met Ajia was the desire to serve those underrepresented populations, to be able to elevate the opportunities, to highlight the connections that are possible, to create content and support and services for people that might not otherwise have access to them. Or might not have the same level of funding or exposure. So that's something I've always admired about you. And I love the fact that you are embracing the chaos that can be small business ownership and just allowing yourself the freedom to pivot. 

Because I think that makes you such an excellent example to other businesses who come to you and rely on you for your digital strategy expertise and the services that you provide to say, You know what, if in six months from now, everything is different, I know Ajia and her team can pivot with us. And I think that's such an under, what is the right word I'm looking for? It's just not talked about enough. How, you know, when you work with somebody who is used to being able to pivot quickly, that it also benefits your business.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (05:45.834)

Exactly, and I agree 100%. And it's funny, I actually was just, I have conversations with, as you can imagine, everybody constantly. But specifically, I was just speaking with a small business owner who was just getting started. And I think what we often as, particularly as women, we either try to take on everything ourselves, or we're kind of thrown in the myths that are presented on social media about what it means to actually grow a business. And they're just so far from what the reality is. 

You know, we think that we need to do all of these different things to be the next, basically going from 0.0 to 0.100 overnight. And it really just does not work that way. And so I think when I had the opportunity to realize that I even pivoted my mindset to approach this as a project in itself. You know what I mean? An incremental project as opposed to trying to tackle everything, you know, head on straight away because it's just doesn't, it's not feasible. And if you're only one person, it's, it's just going to be nothing but a hassle. 

So yeah, I mean, to your point, it, you really just have to shift to align with what you can handle, where you really are, as well as where you want to go.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (07:08.367)

Oh, I love that perspective. I love that. So this is why it's so beneficial, listeners, to work with a project manager because they see business differently. And I think that sometimes we can easily get wrapped up in the comparisonitis that we see online. We can get wrapped up in the shoulda, woulda, coulda's or that self-inflicted shame, I should be here.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (07:19.598)

Yeah. Ha ha ha.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (07:32.947)

I should be at this level. Why is my business not growing as quickly as I see these other people when in reality, what you're seeing is just what they want you to see on the internet. We don't ever truly know the behind the scenes of someone's business. And I would imagine as a digital strategist, having exposure and access to lots of different businesses that also probably helps ground you into what business looks like in reality, I would imagine.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (07:58.602)

Oh, absolutely, which is why I can't emphasize enough. Like, do not believe the hype on the most immediate. You know what I mean? And the thing is, it's OK, right? It's OK to you're going to have the ups, the downs. That's just what it is. That's the journey. And we tend to one of the things that we say about Digalyne is we're agile focused and human centered. And of course, remote in action, because all the people I work with are on my team are remote. 

Ashley Cox (she/her) (08:04.817)

Yes.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (08:28.376)

But agile focus is one key points because even though a lot of folks still don't really know what Agile means, what it really means for us is that we are able to be nimble with you, right? Like we expect things to change and because we both prepare for and expect changes, it doesn't scare us as much regardless of if it's within my own business as well as within the client's business, right? Like we expect it and we're prepared to be able to manage it for you.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (08:53.819)

I just feel like that's such a comforting statement. I don't know about anybody else listening, but it's like, okay, you've got me. And I feel like there's a level of anxiety that comes with running a business where you feel like everything's on your shoulders all the time. And when you really partner with somebody who gets that, who understands that, it's heavy business ownership can be heavy and it can be hard and it can be beautiful and it can be amazing and it can be all of the wonderful things too. And it can keep you up at night. 

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (09:26.53)

It absolutely will.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (09:44.639)

Then I think that you feel like, okay, I can set this down. I can give this to Ajia. I can give this to her team. And I know that I don't have to stress about this one part of my business, which really impacts so many parts of the business. I'm sure that in your world of digital strategy, you're constantly going, okay, well, here's the, in my words, here's the impact ripple. When we do this one thing, it hits this, it hits this, it hits this, it hits this. And I think that that's important for people to know that it's really a holistic approach.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (10:03.03)

Yep, yeah, absolutely. I love that word holistic. I'm glad you said that, 100%.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (10:07.027)

Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. So let's talk a little bit about some of the things that we've started to see, and this is gonna be a collaborative conversation, but really kind of going and leaning into that article that you shared earlier this year. And again, the title of that article is Minority-Led and BIPOC-Centered AI Models and Why They're Important. And as soon as I saw this, hit my inbox, I was like, hmm.

I wanna read that. So I literally read it right that minute and then shot Ajah an email. I was like, this is brilliant. I love this. More people need to hear this message. And so we're gonna link that in our show notes for you so that you can go and read the article because absolutely worth a read. But Ajah, what kind of prompted you to write this article? What were you seeing happening or what were you experiencing that you were like, I need to write this and share it with the people?

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (11:00.178)

Yeah, well first before I answer, I just want to say thank you, number one, for reading it. You just never know, it's anyway if you're ever going to read it. But I wanted to write it anyway, but thank you for reading it as well as thank you for sharing it and highlighting it. I'm really happy about that. I also want to thank you for being intentional about highlighting, you know, fellow women, Black and brown women. I really want to give you your

Ashley Cox (she/her) (11:04.887)

Ha ha ha!

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (11:27.858)

Now, as far as why I wrote it, number one, as you already stated earlier, and I know we'll talk about a little bit more later, AI has just kind of been this, you know, thing of interest that bubbled to the surface of basically being trendy, the earlier part of the year, thanks to ChatGPT. But because I had the understanding that, you know, artificial intelligence is nowhere near a new thing. It's been a part of emerging technology for quite some time, you know, well over 25 years, or I will say at least 20 years in development. Even ChatGPT, you know, started in 2017 and then went through their respective iterations and so forth. 

So what we got in 2023 is, was that GPT-4 or I think GPT-3, and their next iteration was GPT-4. So with the understanding that this is not a new thing, even though it's now becoming popularized and that particular tool has now reached mass adoption, to basically speak to that within the trend, but also be able to educate and say, you know, generative AI is common, not just with chat GPT. Everyone's using it, but as you're using it, you need to be critical of your use, right? 

But also aware that its output is not the end all be all, right? Oftentimes, and we've seen several different case studies of just biased information or even discriminatory information coming as a result of the use of AI tools. And so I just wanted to bring attention to that fact, remind people that ethical AI needs to be a part of your use and application, and consider there's so many different language processing models out there, but a lot of them kind of exclude other populations, right?

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (13:20.706)

So Indigenous folks, for example, data from urban communities, data from, again, underrepresented business communities are often lacking in some of these mass language processing models. So I really just wanted to call attention to that, those aspects, as well as give props to all the different minority folks. And I know minority is, you know, some people don't like using that word, some people do, but really what I mean is people of color and I wanted to give props to the folks who have been doing the legwork for decades or at least over 15 years within this very same topic. 

You know what I mean? Because they've been doing the work and they've been calling out some of those same issues. And so we just need to be very critical about what it means to use generative AI in a ethical and responsible way.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (14:10.739)

I think that's such a perfect summarization, using AI in an ethical and responsible way. And I think that because it became trendy really, really fast, everybody jumped on the AI train and they were like, woohoo, let's go. And a lot of that critical thinking or that pause and consider didn't happen.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (14:33.995)

Right, exactly.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (14:35.591)

Yeah, and so a couple of things you mentioned that I jotted down on my notes that I'd like to talk a little bit more about is, well, first, maybe we should define BIPOC for folks who might not be aware of or familiar with that term. And of course, you know, minority being a word that's gone back and forth in whether or not we should use that term and essentially what we're referring to or what you're referring to when you say minority-led and BIPOC-centered.

So if you could share a little bit about what that means and how maybe, you know, some of the big button AI or the big players in the game aren't reflective of that or those communities.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (15:18.034)

Yeah, absolutely. So BIPOC, for me, Black and Brown Indigenous People of Color is the acronym. And you know, there's always going to be, and there should be, there's always going to be criticism of some of these terms. I think for me, it just gives an opportunity to acknowledge people of color, right? And the criticism, and I'm not gonna spend too much time on this, but just giving our conversation, but the criticism is that we don't wanna group all people of color together because that then starts to wash away their culture and all the different things that make us very distinct. 

So I understand that criticism and I agree with it, but for the sake of calling it out, people of color and indigenous folks is who we're referring to. As far as the big players, I want to say that there are now even more so because of all the different horrible instances of discrimination and bias in some of these artificial intelligence outputs that have taken place in the past 10 years. Now organizations are intentionally setting up ethical AI and governance committees to purposely be able to be on board and review and just be critical of what is happening, taking place in an organization when it comes to AI and these different tools. 

As far as artificial intelligence, of course, again, we mentioned that it's been a part of the emerging technology scene for some time. 

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (16:57.522)

And so I don't think it was intentional necessarily in the beginning when in development of these different tools. I think what happens with technology is there is a problem, right? And so you have different folks who want to then try to solve that problem with technology, in this case, through AI tools. So they develop that and those respective tools have different patented language processing tool to then be able to produce output that is human-like, right? 

So that processing happens, but it's not until something bad happens like, oh, for example, within the blog that I wrote, I highlighted a gentleman who, he did a review of one of the organizations he was with, output. And it turned out that the output was very discriminatory toward Muslims. You know, it only highlight them as basically terrorists or involved in just really negative and derogatory stereotypical stuff. 

And it's only until someone actually goes in and does only when something huge happens and the media highlights it that we're able to see, oh, there might be a problem here. And so unfortunately, the big players, because Binesha isn't being big, they get the biggest criticism for it, as they should. But I just wanted to say, I don't think it was intentional, but what does need to happen reoccurring now, there needs to be intention around constantly reviewing and analyzing those outputs and the actual language processing model. 

And I will say this as well, and then I'll end with that or with this is that when it comes to individual use, now the onus is also on us as users to just to go in. And. There are usually, especially within a beta tool, there are usually components that excuse me, sir, there are usually components that you can either validate the information, the output or invalidate and say this is helpful, this is not helpful. We need to be proactive users of these tools, right? 

Isn't the goal, and that's what really what the organization wants you to do anyway, but as we said, when people come into trends, they're not really as aware that you're supposed to be an active, a proactive person in telling this tool that this content is not relevant. This content may need to be revised, whatever. You have to tell the tool that in order for the language processing models to then be able to update. So we have to be active and proactive users of these respective tools.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (19:43.811)

I love this so much, Ajia, because I think that it's easy for us to place the blame on external parties. And yes, obviously there is some blame to be passed around there. And to be able to take the onus and the responsibility to say, we can be a collaborative partner in this and in creating more representative, more diverse, more inclusive AI technology. So I really appreciate you bringing that up because within, I know within chat GPT, there's like the thumbs up, the thumbs down button, and sometimes it'll prompt you what was not, what did you not like about this? 

Or why was this not an effective response or whatever? And you get the chance to write a couple of quick sentences or a summary or write a whole message to them about why this wasn't an appropriate, acceptable, effective response, whatever it might've been.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (20:39.071)

So I think that part of the conversation is seeming to be, we have to be more mindful and more diligent in the tools that we're using. So what would be some of your recommendations that with any kind of digital tool, whether it's AI or whether it's another tool that you're using, what are some things that we can be cognitive of or aware of when we're thinking, hey, I might wanna use this tool in my business?

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (21:07.562)

Yeah, great question. A few things. Number one, representation is important. It does matter. And so even in the conversation of development of these types of generative AI tools, it's really important for the people who are developing it to be diverse and inclusive, right? Because that's how you then are able to gain those different perspectives, which contributes to the data sources. And so within respective organizations, before deciding to use a respective tool or a digital strategy, you need to include your employees. 

You need to include people at different levels of the organization because only the people who are on the ground, only the people who are going to be impacted by the use of the tool can really be able to share. This is how use of this will be able to impact us, which will then be able to impact the business as a whole. So I'd say the first thing would be to make sure the conversation or the initial conversation in considering a tool or a new strategy is inclusive. It's very important and empathetic, but that's a whole other topic.

Secondly, you need to have a period of analysis and be critical of it because there's always going to be something you can either compare it to or something that you can do your due diligence on. There's just so much knowledge and awareness out there to avoid just instant application or instant use. When it comes to, especially if it's going to impact your business.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (22:48.05)

Just taking it and running with it is never a good idea. Right? And so have that period of analysis, right? Have that period of due diligence. Take a look at it, see what are some of the folks who are already using it saying about it. How is this beneficial to your organization? One of the things I always try to encourage folks not to do is to jump on trends for the sake of just jumping on it. And I think that happens a lot, particularly in the digital world. And you don't start to see the ramifications for it until after the fact you know, thousands of dollars or wasted a lot of time. 

And so specifically to AI or generative AI tools, there are a lot of different ones, again, that you can compare it to. And so I'd say create some type of governance plan or even just policies around use of it. You definitely want to incorporate ethics. What are we saying this tool will be used for and how will it be used in service of the people that we serve as a company or as a team? You need to have those conversations, which user feedback can also help kind of delineate those conversations as well. Um

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (24:06.718)

And then also I want to say encourage folks to take the time to use it individually before it's, before it's, what's the word I'm looking for, before it's rolled out to the entire enterprise or to the entire department, right? So definitely want to encourage folks to get their feet wet, you know, test it out. You can test it on a small scale before you again, before you have to roll it out. And that might take time. It doesn't have to take a lot of time. It can take a few weeks. But it's important to have those respective steps before you just dive head first into use of a new tool or a new application.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (24:42.303)

Yes, this is so good, Ajia, and I think that having a really thoughtful, intentional approach to any digital tool that we're using is always a good suggestion. One of the things that you had said, what are people saying? I would add to that, and I imagine you would probably agree with this, is look outside of your typical circle of influence because it probably looks mostly like we look. And then look for those brown and black voices, look for those indigenous voices, look for those voices from the LGBTQ community, look for those voices from the disabled community. 

You know, we've gotta take a really, again, I'm gonna use that word, holistic approach to being really mindful and thoughtful about the tools that we're using, the voices that we're listening to, the advice and the input and the opinions that we're getting, so that way it's not just my friend who looks exactly like me and has a very similar background to me feels the same way, so I must be on the right track. I think that's why it's so important for us to invite people in who are dissimilar to us. We're all similar in some ways, but we have very different lived experiences often. I might not catch something that someone else might see or hear or feel in that moment. I think that's such a poignant part of all of this.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (26:06.126)

Absolutely, I 100% agree. And the same goes both ways, you know.

If you are in a majority black organization, you need to have an inclusive approach. At least in my opinion, one of the things we strongly advise clients with is you need to have an inclusive approach to digital application. And I think that's so honestly, I think that's often overlooked because when we think about technology, we, you know, a lot of folks, they don't care about, you know, they're not thinking about the people. They're thinking about the tool and what the tool can do for the business.

But the reality is you employ people, right? And you serve people. So the tool or the technology is just in service of that. So you have to consider everybody. And like I said, it might take a little extra, you know, intention, a little extra work, but it's not gonna push you back years, right? It doesn't have to be that way. Again, if you do things in a more agile and incremental.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (27:04.631)

Absolutely. I think this season I'm going to say this phrase more than I've ever said it before, but we are people working with people. And I think at the end of the day, if you don't get anything else right in your business, except listening to and taking care of people, then you've done everything right.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (27:25.655)

So good, so good. So, Ajia, I would love for you to share some of your favorite AI platforms or models. I know that you've shared some inside of the article. So folks will get a lot of your recommendations right there. But maybe just one or two for our listeners today that you say, OK, this is something that you should check out and just see, how is this model different than maybe a chat GPT or another one of the big players in the game?

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (28:11.042)

So yeah, absolutely. So I'm gonna highlight a few. Some of them are more mainstream in larger companies, but then also, of course, some of the ones in the blog article that we wrote. Number one, I do wanna point out that artificial intelligence, there's a lot of different types. And what we've been referring to mostly during this conversation is generative AI.

But there's real-time AI, there's just a lot of different models. Again, because of chat GPT, people are more familiar with generative AI. What I'll be recommending today is more so within that scope. On the mainstream side, of course, there's GPT. There is Google Bard, there is Anthropologies Cloud, Microsoft has Copilot.

So I really like. And then of course, a lot of our other mainstream tools are starting to be more prominent with their own built-in artificial intelligence tools as well. And so I recommend if you are going to use GPT, use Google Bard or use whatever other general AI tool alongside it so that you can have a comparison of the outputs. And that, again, helps you get a more objective understanding of what that whatever it is that the output is, so that you can be more critical about its use.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (29:38.511)

That's a really great recommendation. I think it's being able to say, here are two or three generative AI tools and how do they differ? What is the messaging? What influence are they pulling from? What kind of impact are they having? So thank you for sharing that. I think that's really smart.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (29:56.542)

Absolutely, absolutely. And as we mentioned earlier, they all have their own patented language processing models. So they might be pulling from similar data, but a lot of times it might not be the same exact data. So definitely good to have that comparison. Now for the, you know, I don't want to say smaller because I feel like I don't want to devalue the work of it, but there are a lot of, again, minority or

Ashley Cox (she/her) (30:20.107)

Lesser known?

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (30:21.638)

Lesser known, yeah, lesser known, perfect term. There are a lot of folks within BIPOC communities who are, again, AI specialists, who are within that wheelhouse that are doing the heavy lifting of developing very specific language processing models that pulled from urban communities, that pulled from different colloquialisms that you might only hear in a specific population that pull from the data that serves a bifid population. 

And so there is one that's still, I believe, being patented. Let me see here. It's actually the first that I called out in the blog article, the Du Bois model. It's been developed by the same social lab. And I really want to call that workout because again, it's just I mean, it's just innovative, right? Often these populations are overlooked. 

You know what I mean? And it's like, imagine having an artificial intelligence tool be able to speak to exactly what it is you might be looking for in a way that your community resonates with, right? And unfortunately, yeah, it's exciting. When I read about it, I was so excited.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (31:31.988)

Ugh, so important.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (31:36.796)

Yeah, I got goosebumps just talking because I just think that that's so important for those voices to not just be given a token space in the AI world, but to be given an elevated platform to be able to say this resonates with me because it's culturally important, because it's racially important, because it's important to my humanity as a person.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (31:57.052)

Exactly.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (32:03.222)

Oh my gosh, exactly. And think about it. Remember we were saying the words validate or invalidate. When you have a model that has that data sourcing from your respective community, what you're saying is important in your community is quote-unquote being validated. You know what I mean? As it would usually not be in more mainstream tools. And this is why writing the article for me was so important. Cause I really just wanted to give acknowledgment to that work, but also emphasize, the data or the outputs that you have on a daily basis from these other tools, they're missing a huge element, right?

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (32:35.262)

They're missing a huge and very important cultural and communal element that a lot of other folks are looking for. And so the Du Bois model from same social lab, I definitely want to encourage folks in the urban planning space specifically to check that out because this speaks to that niche, but also will probably give you give you a better output than some of these other tools. 

So, you know, just look into it. There are a lot of different conferences, especially in the AI world that are happening in South Africa and in Western Africa, where just thousands of folks are coming together to speak about these very things and to even come together and develop the beginnings of natural language processing models so they can get in front of the data sourcing for the development of these types of tools. You know what I mean? So, yeah really exciting time. I just want to continue to encourage folks to look into different sources of generative AI tools.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (33:40.999)

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. And I think that, Ajia, your article is a really fantastic place for people to start. So like I said, we'll definitely link that in the show notes so folks can go check that out and see some of these other options that exist. I think so many times, you know, the one thing that got the runway and is getting the trending, you know, posts and hashtags and excitement, and it's all very exciting. I can't imagine having something trend that mainstream.

But it's also not giving opportunity for all the other people, like you said, who have really built the foundation for so much of this AI technology and the generative technology to get some of that love. And I think the more that we can elevate those voices and provide exposure and say their names, say their names out loud so that people can say, oh, I've never heard of this company and then share it with a friend or 12.

I think it's so important for us to really, to be intentional with that. And so I think, you know, folks, you need to follow Ajah and all of the incredible work that she and her team are doing over at Digalyne. Women in Tech is another great organization to follow. And I know they talk a lot about AI technology and all the things, you know, women related in technology, which is, continues to be an underrepresented group, women and women of color in technology. So we'll drop some resources there in our show notes for you today.

But you know, as we wind down our conversation today, which I honestly think I could probably just talk to you all day about all of the things, but I know it's time for us to kind of wrap things up here a little bit for our listeners, and it's time for our final segment, Imagine the Impact. So Ajia, I would love for you to help paint the vision for the kind of impact our listeners could create through one key thought or takeaway or action item.

Whether it's something you've already shared and you just want to emphasize or if it's something that you haven't had a chance to share yet.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (35:40.174)

Yeah, I would love to. So I think our vision for digital learning is to be able to redefine a world of equitable digital innovation. And so if there were anything that I feel listeners could take away from this is you can be an active user as well as just an active person in the development of all these different technologies. And so I would encourage folks to always be critical, but not so critical to the point of inaction.

And so what I mean by that is, you know, you want to have, proactive strategy in place to be able to analyze but also get in front of it. You know, test it out. Have those inclusive voices as a part of the testing team or the analytical team even if it's just you, you know, folks on a personal level.

Be critical, but test it out. See what resonates. See what aligns with your respective workflow. And then in the context of business, you can begin to roll it out and again, of course, in iterations. So I just want to encourage folks to be critical, but also be a proactive user. And as more of these tools start to be more widely adopted.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (36:55.159)

Imagine the impact that really being thoughtful and intentional and proactive in our use of AI and especially diverse AI voices could have on our businesses, our communities, and our world. Ah, Ajia, thank you so much for being here. Where is the best place for folks to connect with you, to learn more, and to take advantage of your services?

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (37:20.134)

Yeah, absolutely. And actually, I'd like to add one more point to the previous question, if you don't mind. Yeah.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (37:24.739)

Absolutely. Please, please do it. We'll just, we'll just put this in there.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (37:29.982)

Just briefly, but more importantly, I definitely want to encourage folks to consider Indigenous voices and Indigenous data sources when it comes to really anything. I believe that it can be applied across different areas of business, but we need to give homage and consideration to the fact that many Indigenous voices and contributions to the data and contributions to the work in tech in itself are often ignored critical to how we choose to go about being intentional in this type of work. So definitely want to encourage you all to look into Indigenous data sources. 

You can find me at Digalyne, everything. So we are on Instagram, we are on LinkedIn at most heavily, our digital riser series. We've actually taken a break from that, but you can listen to a lot of the episodes on Spotify, D as in dog, I-G-A-L-Y-N-E. And yeah, you can find us on all platforms as well as Meta. 

And if you would like to hear more snippets of this type of dialogue, or this type of context and information, definitely check out our stories on Instagram and Meta because I often do little nuggets here and there to help educate folks because closing that knowledge gap is really important to us here at Digalyne.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (38:57.987)

I love it. I love it all. And we'll definitely put all of this in the show notes, the website, the social links, the digital riser series. You definitely want to check out all of that. So we will, we'll hook you up and make sure that you can get there easily. But thank you so much again, Ajia, for joining us on the Ripple, Impact Ripple podcast today. Oh my gosh. I don't even know how to say my own, my own podcast name. The Impact Ripple podcast.

It has been such an honor to have your voice and to have your experience and expertise join me for a conversation on an area that is still so ever evolving and that I think is such a good call to action to be able to say let's be active, engaged, proactive participants, collaborative participants in the development of AI technology, of generative technology. So thank you so much, Ajia.

Ajia Allen, Digalyne (39:49.452)

Thank you. Thank you so much, Ashley. I'm so happy to be here with you all today.

Ashley Cox (she/her) (39:53.343)

Wonderful. And thank you, dear leader, for tuning into our conversation today. I hope that you found it inspiring, enlightening, and motivating to join the collaborative opportunities that we have so readily before us. As always, it's an honor and a privilege to be here with and for you on your leadership journey.