Back in November 2025, I was at AfroTech reconnecting with Will Lucas of Black Tech Green Money. Our conversation had that cookout, Juneteenth “get free” energy. Jidenna had just performed and Stacey Abrams was up next. And we asked the question: do we just survive this AI transition, or do we choose how to live and change the rules of the game? And who gets to decide what happens next?

With Will, I trace my path from wanting to be a gardener in DC to becoming a storyteller, we talk about what we owe kids and teachers as AI enters classrooms, and argue these tools aren’t truly intelligent. We challenge the idea that “AI takes jobs,” stressing that human choices and profit motives drive layoffs, and we connect Black people’s high AI use to generations of survival mode while calling for bolder, system-level reinvention. The invitation is to move beyond finding the next shortcut and start building the world we actually want.

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