There is a new app on the market and I think it will change the way we understand the onslaught of news around us. The app is called Aisha, and its mission is to connect Black communities with knowledge, trusted sources, and tools to help us navigate the digital world with confidence. It is the brainchild of Esosa Osa, founder and CEO of Onyx Impact, a nonprofit research, media, and technology organization dedicated to amplifying Black voices and protecting Black communities in an era of propaganda.
AI and chat assistants are everywhere these days. The difference is that Aisha is an AI agent built to serve people better where mainstream AI has failed. It centers Black sources and history as foundational principles. In an era when there are attempts to erase Black history in all facets of American life, an app built for us and by us is more important than ever.
The mission of Aisha is to help combat bad actors circulating misinformation and disinformation in Black online spaces. There are many critiques of artificial intelligence, its surveillance tendencies, shaky environmental standards, and so much more. But the founders of Aisha have kept these concerns in mind by designing and building a safer and more culturally relevant experience that helps Black communities navigate this space with greater clarity and confidence.
If you visit www.onyximpact.org, you can find out more about Aisha, as well as how to establish “Good Habits for Bad News Cycles.” Ososa and her team have put together various resources to help protect our truth, protect our kids, and protect our culture. They provide a plethora of resources beginning with five steps to help you navigate this rapidly changing and unclear digital world. To do so, we must: Recognize platform manipulation, read through the day’s headlines on a trusted news site first, follow Black news and journalists directly, don’t contribute to uncertainty, and Protect Your Peace.
There are so many algorithms manipulating the news we see. We must rely on news sources beyond Facebook and TikTok and support news organizations like TheRoot.com and TheGrio.com, and of course, The New York Amsterdam News, as well as follow trusted journalists, professors, and politicos who have the credentials and have done the research.
I often rely on the analysis of friends and colleagues like Dr. Jason Johnson, Danielle Moodie, Elie Mystal, Kimberley Crenshaw, Charles Coleman, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Mitchell Jackson, Brittney Cooper, Trymaine Lee, Maya Wiley, Dorian Warren, Stacey Abrams, and Nikole Hannah-Jones, to name just a very small few.
Let’s protect our peace as well as our presence online. We must make an effort to find and follow trusted sources so we can be leaders in our communities, sharing and spreading truth-filled information. I am so thankful the app Aisha can help us do so.
Christina Greer, Ph.D., is a Professor at Fordham University; author of the books “How to Build a Democracy: From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams” and “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”; and co-host of the podcast FAQ-NYC.
