“And I’ma let you know/that this way you just don’t cut with the artificial flow.”—Fakin’ the Funk by Main Source
All was quiet in the social media streets until a new video surfaced claiming that several notable Black leaders were really aliens from another universe by a mysterious Youtuber known only as A.I. Hoover. Almost overnight, he had gained 100,000 loyal subscribers.
It was not until the YouTube channel made a hundred grand from super chat donations that it was revealed that Hoover was really an artificial intelligence bot created by a secret agency called The C.R.O.W.S. (Counterintelligence Removal Of Warrior Scholars) …
One of the most important scientific breakthroughs in modern history has been the invention of AI (Artificial Intelligence), a computer program that can use anyone’s voice or likeness to create a digital clone. This has produced a diabolical scheme known as deepfake. Recently, many people panicked when an AI version of President Joe Biden was used to influence the New Hampshire primary.
However, we should be asking, how is artificial intelligence going to affect a Black community whose major source of information has gone from the morning paper to cell phones? After all, we already live in an era when most social media news is not vetted but is legitimized by click bait generated YouTube hits. This new technology is especially going to impact what is known as the conscious community.
›Although we cannot overlook the work of such Black leaders as the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey in establishing a climate of Black pride in America, Black consciousness was largely propagated by Steve Biko, who applied the term to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa during the 1960s.
According to Biko, “the most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” Therefore, raising the consciousness of the people would break the mental chains of oppression. (Read Biko’s “I Write What I Like”)
The phrase Black consciousness was also used by Kwame Ture who taught us that the duty of the conscious is to make the unconscious aware of their unconscious behavior, thus combatting mental programing.
Today the term conscious has come to refer to members of a social media community whose videos feature everything from in depth discussions of hidden historical facts to convincing people that Jay Z is a clone created in a secret lab under the Marcy Projects.
Back in the day, before Facebook and Instagram, our warrior scholars had to hop Greyhounds and travel from city to city doing lectures, hopefully selling enough books or cassette tapes to get back home. Unlike today, when social media revenue can make you wealthy and give you rock star status, from the comfort of your basement.
However, this does not come without an unprecedented set of problems. The proverbial powers that be (CIA, FBI, etc.) have long tried to neutralize Black freedom fighters and have used all types of means of deception to do so. One of their methods under former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) was to send agents and infiltrators into Black organizations.
One operation being the Ghetto Informant Program of the ’60s and ’70s (read Kenneth O’Reilly’s book, “Racial Matters”). Not only did the bureau attack such militant groups as the Black Panther Party, they also conducted surveillance on Black writers and intellectuals going back to the Harlem Renaissance era.
According to William Maxwell’s book, “FB Eyes,” the FBI hired ghost readers to monitor the work of writers such as Claude McKay and Langston Hughes.
The reach of the fed’s counterintelligence programs has only been curtailed by how many agents they could afford to put on their payroll. But in the era of AI, there are no such limitations, and they can create a clandestine internet army large enough to eventually snoop on every activist on the planet. If COINTELPRO’s goal was to prevent the rise of a Black Messiah, then AI might be the anti-Christ.
So, how do we counter the AI onslaught?
In African tradition, one would have to seek permission from the elders to speak. I remember my late elder, Brother Hotata, used to demand to see battle scars before a young buck was allowed to interject opinions into one of his sessions. Somehow, we have to return to this type of order that prevents misinformation from being spread.
Secondly, we have to put the dirty dashiki theory into process, as proof of a revolutionary consciousness and commitment to the struggle of our people. This means that if you claim to be a freedom fighter or warrior scholar, you must provide proof of your labor or have some dirt on your dashiki.
Lastly, we must develop think tanks where actual books from our master teachers will be used to counter lies with truth.
In 2024, we must be on high alert and be constantly on guard against the AI deception.
Like Michael Jackson’s mama warned him about Billie Jean back in the day “be careful what you do, ‘cuz the lie becomes the truth.”
Minister Paul Scott is founder of the Durham, N.C.-based Black Messiah Movement, P.O. Box 15123, Durham, N.C. 27704. He can be reached at 919-972-8305 or [email protected].
