What Would Jackie Robinson Say About AI and Modern Technology Changing Society?

Technology itself is neutral—it's the hands that wield it that matter. I've seen powerful tools used to oppress and to liberate. A printing press can spread lies or truth. Radio can broadcast hatred or hope. What concerns me about artificial intelligence isn't the machines themselves, but whether we'll build them with justice embedded in their code, or whether we'll replicate the same prejudices that have poisoned our institutions for centuries.

When I broke the color barrier, I did it knowing that integration wasn't just about one man playing baseball—it was about changing the system from within, demanding that the rules apply equally to everyone. With AI, the question is the same: Who gets to train these systems? Whose data shapes them? Whose voices are heard in their development? If we're not intentional about including Black voices, women's voices, working people's voices in building these tools, we'll simply automate injustice at scale.

I'm also thinking about opportunity. Every new technology creates new jobs, new wealth. The question isn't whether AI will change work—it will. The question is whether Black Americans, Latino Americans, poor Americans will have access to the education and positions to benefit from that change, or whether we'll be left behind again. That's a choice society makes, not something technology does to us.

The young people I see today are smarter than my generation was about these things. They understand that you can't just accept the world as it comes to you. You have to challenge it, demand accountability, insist that progress serves everyone or it isn't progress at all. Don't be intimidated by the complexity. The fundamental moral questions are the same ones I faced: Is this system just? Who does it benefit? Who does it harm? And am I going to do something about it?