Curiosity, Inclusion, & AI

Claude thought I was a Black woman.

I am not.

Admittedly when Claude asked me if one of my offerings “Purging Your Mental Playlist” came from my lived experience as a Black woman navigating Corporate America I was surprised and saw humor in the mistake. Despite having ample evidence in multiple photos, Claude made assumptions without evidence.

Maybe it’s a positive thing that it didn’t default to thinking everyone is White. I can guess it did make some assumptions based on my career as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leader.

I wasn’t planning on sharing this story until a trusted mentor encouraged me.

It’s an example of why the intersection of diversity, inclusion, AI and curiosity is more critical than ever.

I’m a proponent of AI. Ethical and responsible AI. It opens possibilities.

I’ve sat in conversation with CHROs, observed the experiments, seen the push to adopt, to automate. Speed prioritized. If you’re not adopting AI quickly enough, you’re at risk.

But the conversation should be more complicated. With so many companies eliminating, deleveling, or otherwise shrinking their DEI teams, whose role is it to get curious and ask the hard questions? I always say the work of inclusion is everyone’s responsibility and have worked hard throughout my professional and personal lives to integrate it into systems, ways of working, and ways of being but when the pressure is on and fear about your place in the new realities being created are rampant who speaks the questions to power and experts in the way that creates dialogue and results in better solutions?

🔆 Where does your data come from? Who created the data? Who audits the data for accuracy, consistency, whose ideas, concepts are weighted more heavily? Is the historical data itself replicating narrow constructs of what success, leadership, potential look like?

🔆 Are you replicating processes and systems without questioning if those processes serve everyone equitably? Are they anchored on systems and processes that are rooted in historic harm—intentional or unintentional?

🔆 Whose voices are included in the design of agents? In the oversight and management of agents?

🔆 Who sits in the roles being displaced by technology, what happens to those individuals and communities?

🔆 What are the risks based not only on current regulatory environments but future direction?

🔆 How are these systems upholding the values your company espouses?

How is your team, your organization getting curious about these questions and others? Are you building the pause into your process that makes room for questions?

Are you letting fear stop your curiosity? Fear of loss. Fear of missing out. Fear of change.

Curiosity is fundamental to ensuring ethical, responsible, and inclusive AI where human discernment accelerates the possibilities.

#AI
#curiosity
#inclusion
#HR