"Ethics is not neutral": Understanding Ethical and Responsible AI Design from the Lenses of Black Youth

The rise of generative AI has brought a host of challenges for historically marginalized groups, including increased surveillance, AI-mediated racism, and algorithmic inequity. While stakeholders emphasize ethical and responsible AI that is safe, anti-discriminatory, and “protects human dignity,” the centrality of anti-Blackness in the design, development, and deployment of AI systems coupled with race-evasive approaches to defining and advancing ethical, equitable, and ‘human-centered’ technologies have exacerbated racial oppression. We present three case studies of speculative technologies designed by Black youth in a college bridge, summer course that examine ethical and responsible AI in their everyday lives. From a bottom-up approach, we infringe upon this broader discourse to provide an initial grounding of responsible and ethical AI as well as discuss the criticality of Black, historically anchored, culturally-situated lenses to offer justice-oriented design principles that can guide the teaching, learning, and design of technology.