Transcription
I also want to talk to you about the big news that you have this this AI new. What is it? Aisha?
Aisha.
Aisha AI.
And then exactly.
Tell me about it. I mean, we have something new on the forefront that is for communities that look like us. Talk to me about this, especially at a time when AI is moving so rapidly and so many people have been left behind.
Look, today Onyx Impact launched Aisha, which is a standalone app built from the ground up to better serve our communities.
Mhm.
Right? It you can you can download it right now at Aisha.ai, but we started this this this entire project well over a year ago because the most powerful information tool of our generation, AI, was being handed to black communities in a form that was actively harming them. Right?
Profiling us.
Profiling us, harming us. We know this to be the case. We know that that that ChatGPT recommended the death penalty more often when defendants sounded black. We know that AI data centers are disproportionately landing in black communities. We know that image generators default to dark skin for crime, right? And we know that
job
4 million job applications that were run through by AI hiring tools systematically rejected black applicants. That's still happening today. So, but Aisha, we decided to center her first and foremost on black sources,
Mhm.
black history,
Mhm.
black progress, right? We just we put guardrails around to to ensure that these that Aisha was reducing bias at at every step. Right? We prioritized user privacy. We do not want your information. We do not use your personal data to train our model. Your conversations our engineers can even see your conversations. Right? And we looked at what was happening from an environmental standpoint in black communities and we said that that is not acceptable. And so Aisha's local model, local proprietary model, uses data centers in Vancouver, Toronto, and and Montreal. Right? And we we chose those places specifically because they represented the cleanest electric grid sources in all of North America. Right? And and when you and when we look at what they are able to do, what what happens with at these at these power centers, right? The water goes directly from the turbines back into its source, and so little to no water supply is lost to power Aisha. Right? We made we made explicit decisions, intentional decisions. Like what would it look like if something was made for us? What would it look like if someone was not interested in replacing people's jobs? Right? We are fundamentally against AGI, which is, you know, the race to recreate the human brain, right? The ultimate goal of the most of these large language models, that's why they use so much power and electricity, right? That we believe that to be unethical and immoral. And what Aisha is is intended to be a digital assistant based on black news, black sources, black history for people 18 and over, nothing more, nothing less. And so we are I mean, completely astounded by the by the incredibly powerful response that we have seen today in just a few hours after our launch the thousands of folks that have already downloaded Aisha that are are are um using her with full force that are are asking, you know, her for for recipes that are asking
I wonder what kind of recipes.
[laughter]
She just sent me a great recipe for some jerk chicken. I'm not going to I'm not going to lie. And as someone who
You got a lot of who love Jamaican food here. Jerk chicken don't play.
I'm not playing. And as look, here's the power of Aisha. April, I am someone that does not own a pot or pan. I get it. Look, you you and my mom and my family they can all y'all can all have a
I'm not I'm not I'm not judging. This is another
Aisha has me in the kitchen
and you're enjoying it.
Making chicken, making salmon, using my air fryer, right? Like like not only when you ask her about the economy is she going to tell you how that how the economy is affecting black communities without you asking.
Mhm.
Right? When you go into Aisha and you type in your state, just any state, she will give you immediately a list of black news sources to follow and subscribe to. Right? Um the the the the conversations, the answers she will give you about how to how how to talk to [clears throat] your kids about police interactions are so fundamentally different
Wow. Yes.
than these large language models. And she got me to cook.
Wow. Now what How do you get to Aisha again?
aisha.ai
aisha.ai guys
You can you can go there. It's in the app store. It's in the Google Play Store, wherever. Uh it's available for downloads wherever you are. We we highly recommend you checking her out and and and and giving her a spin. We We again, we know that we are are are are not going to be perfect, but we hope that this is a better AI, that this is a way that we can move forward in this conversation for a tool that and that is going to fundamentally recreate how we see the world moving forward.
Aisha, you're so innovative and you you buck the trends and you buck what happens right now at the White House, but you are really in the face of Donald Trump with this, who is anti-DEI and anti-woke. This is all of that that he says he doesn't want. How do you How do you safeguard from being targeted or possibly shut down because you are actually what he hates.
When I tell you that I have not moved a single step in my life based on what that man has wants to do, believes in doing, right? This He is He is uh instituting a DEI disinformation campaign that is at its core anti-black, that is at its core, you know, being used to strip hundreds of millions of dollars from flood protections for black communities, that is being used to strip millions of dollars from sickle cell research, from maternal mortality programs, right? All by calling them woke ideology. We will not stand for it. And what we know about Aisha, right, is that when you build technology that works for the people, it has always failed. You build technology that is better for everyone.
Mhm.
Right? This design produces sharper answers and better context for everyone.
Wow.
More accurate sourcing benefits every user. Deeper cultural context produces sharper answers for every user. And that's how we come to this conversation. Right? Chat GPT was already built with a specific default perspective in mind. We accepted that default perspective as universal. We called it neutral.
Uh-huh.
Right? We called it objective. We handed it to every single person and never questioned
Mhm.
who sat at the center of making that technology.
Mhm.
Um Aisha was built for our communities and she is better for yours because of it.
Amen. So, here's what I want to say really fast. Uh we talked about a lot of stuff. I'm so glad we got a chance to get into Aisha because this is a big deal. But if you can give me a synopsis of a synopsis on privacy concerns, what do you have in place when it comes to issues of privacy? She smiles.
I We prioritize user privacy. Aisha does not We do not use user data or personal information to train our model, point blank. That is a massive difference between us and every other large language model. We do not use conversations for any other business purposes. Your conversations are encrypted and hashed and are only accessible by you. We couldn't see them if we wanted to.
Mhm.
Our engineers couldn't see them if they wanted to. If somebody were to uh hack Aisha and try to get access to the app, they still would not be able to see any of your information because we we decided that it was not necessary. Right? We are not we are a nonprofit. Right? Um the the the revenue that may or may not ever be generated from Aisha will be will will flow back for charitable purposes only. Right? That is how we are operating.
Aisha, the slogan is better AI built for us.
That's right, man.
So so so, thank you. I I'm going to go on it. I I am because I I use it for managing my time and day. Um I don't use it for writing or anything, but I appreciate you. Thank you for all you do. People are saying Aisha in the chat and says, "This is fantastic."
[laughter]
People, I bet you people are looking for that jerk chicken recipe. So they need TO
[laughter]
BUT ANYWAY, THANK YOU and so so so. Come back. This is your second time. You know you can always sip some tea with me, girl. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate y'all.
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