Stephanie Cummings Carr, a senior federal IT leader and Gen AI amplifier at Google, recently delivered a presentation at Ride Con (rolling out‘s Innovation, Digital, and Entertainment Conference) in Atlanta on February 23, 2024. This year’s conference theme focused on artificial intelligence, and Cummings Carr provided valuable insights into Google’s leadership role in AI development. Following her talk, rolling out spoke with Carr about how Black communities can utilize this technology with support from Google.
How is Google helping to lead this charge concerning AI specific to Black people?
One of the initiatives Google has currently in place is called Google Black Genius Academy. That is an initiative where [we identify] Black and Brown and Indigenous people to get their certifications.
We know that there is a deficit in this country at this time. We have over 700,000 unfilled cyber security positions in this country. That means [we need to be graduating and producing more] cyber software engineers and UX design-certified people at the collegiate level.
One of the things we are doing is offering incentives, along with a professional coach in IT, to help you get your certification, whether in cyber security, [software engineering], or UX. Once you get that certification, your coaches will then help you prepare your resume and help you with your interviewing skills.
There are over 120 companies that have come together to help place you for a position. It may not be a Google, but it’ll be with one of the companies Google has partnered with. That’s very exciting.
And it doesn’t have to be a young person. It could be someone who [did] a couple of years of college and realized it wasn’t for them, or it could be someone who’s middle-aged and has decided they want to pivot and shift and do something else. Black Genius Academy is open to anyone and everyone, and no college education or experience is required. You will be trained in that initiative.
What are your thoughts on Ride Con?
[It’s] amazing. [The] fact that [rolling out] comes [to] Morehouse College and is identifying people in industry [to come] and pour into your attendees and keep them educated is valuable.
My goal is to educate as many Brown and Black people as [possible] about not being afraid of the misnomers out there about AI but being alert and educated and learning as much as you possibly can about this new technology because it is here. The genie’s out of the bottle. It’s not going away. It’s our [latest] and greatest industry disrupter. My goal is to [ensure] that as many of us are aware and in tune with it as [possible].
