AI UNHINGED

DeKalb County has invested millions of dollars into a new Real-Time Crime Center and expanded Flock Safety technology across the county, with the goal of using cameras, license plate readers, data analytics, drones, and artificial intelligence to improve public safety. But does more surveillance automatically mean a safer community?

In this episode of AI Unhinged, the conversation gets personal.

Dr. Calvin Lawrence, artificial intelligence expert and former CTO of Ethical and Responsible AI and Smart Cities at IBM, joins the discussion to break down what can happen when AI enters the world of policing. Drawing from his research into AI, surveillance, and law enforcement systems, Dr. Lawrence explains how historical policing data can become the foundation for new algorithms and why existing bias can potentially be amplified rather than eliminated.

The episode explores some difficult questions:

How does AI actually work inside a Real-Time Crime Center?

Can increased surveillance create a policing feedback loop where communities that are already heavily policed continue generating the data that tells algorithms to police them even more?

What happens when a license plate is misread, a watchlist is outdated, or an AI system identifies the wrong vehicle?

Should an AI alert ever be enough for police to stop, pursue, search, or arrest someone, or should it only be treated as an investigative lead that requires independent verification?

Who has access to the data being collected, how long is it retained, and can information originally gathered for one purpose eventually be used for something entirely different?

And perhaps most importantly, who is responsible when the technology gets it wrong?

Dr. Lawrence argues that AI can be a valuable tool for helping law enforcement investigate and solve crimes, but technology alone cannot replace transparency, independent oversight, accountability, human judgment, and protections for the civil rights of the people being monitored.

This is not simply a conversation about whether AI is good or bad.

It is a conversation about what happens when artificial intelligence moves out of our phones and computer screens and begins influencing decisions that can have real consequences in the physical world.

If AI is going to help keep communities safe, who is making sure the AI itself is safe?

LEARN MORE ABOUT DR. LAWRENCE: calvindlawrence.com

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: @aiunhingedpodcast

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What if the video games your child spends hours playing aren't just entertainment—but the beginning of a real skill set, career, or even an industry they could help build?

In this episode of AI Unhinged, Dr. Lawrence sits down with Titus Walker, founder and CEO of the Ultimate End Gamers League (UEL), for a conversation about gaming, artificial intelligence, education, and the next generation.

They challenge the idea that gaming is simply a distraction and explore the skills gamers are developing every day—from pattern recognition and strategy to spatial awareness, memorization, problem-solving, and adaptability. But the conversation goes much deeper than gaming.

What happens when young people move from being consumers of technology to becoming its creators, builders, and owners? Are traditional STEM programs actually meeting kids where they are? And if AI and gaming are shaping the future, who gets to build that future?

The conversation also tackles the concerns parents have about gaming, including online safety, predators, Roblox, screen time, and the responsibility adults have to understand the digital worlds their children already inhabit.

This isn't a conversation about getting kids to stop playing games.

It's about asking what becomes possible when we stop dismissing what they love—and start helping them build something with it.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DR. LAWRENCE: calvindlawrence.com

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: @aiunhingedpodcast

PRODUCED BY: ORGANIZED MOVEMENTS

This week on AI UNHINGED, the questions are rapid-fire, but the answers go much deeper.

What’s the biggest lie we’re telling ourselves about AI? Are some of today’s so-called “AI experts” really experts—or just selling information anyone could get from ChatGPT? And while millions of people are learning how to use AI, who is actually learning how to build it, own it, and profit from it?

Dr. Lawrence gets candid about what AI could mean for Black America, the growing digital wealth gap, and why simply teaching people how to prompt may not be enough. The conversation explores the difference between being an AI consumer, user, creator, and builder—and why that distinction could determine who benefits from the next technological shift.

The episode also gets into education and a troubling question: What happens when some children are encouraged to rely on AI at an early age while others are being taught critical thinking, coding, and how the technology actually works?

From jobs and economic inequality to algorithmic discrimination, civil rights, policing, surveillance, and privacy, this conversation asks the questions that often get left out of the AI hype.

And finally: Could AI actually kill us—or are we so focused on a future AI apocalypse that we’re ignoring the harm AI can cause people today?

No rehearsed answers. No safe talking points.

Just an unfiltered conversation about who AI is really being built for—and what we need to do before the gap gets even wider.

This is AI UNHINGED.

Video Credit Dekalb County Gov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ-249X-iWc

LEARN MORE ABOUT DR. LAWRENCE: calvindlawrence.com

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: @aiunhingedpodcast

PRODUCED BY: ORGANIZED MOVEMENTS

Can corporations be trusted to fix AI bias if there’s no money in fixing it?

In this episode of AI Unhinged, Dr. Calvin D. Lawrence sits down with Dr. Seth Dobrin for a candid conversation about what actually drives responsible artificial intelligence inside corporate America.

Dr. Lawrence introduces his “three R’s”: revenue, reputation, and regulation. His argument is simple: companies are far more likely to take AI safety seriously when ignoring it threatens their profits, damages their reputation, or puts them at regulatory risk.

But Dr. Dobrin pushes the conversation further.

They explore why responsible AI can itself become a business advantage, how privacy and consent can change the relationship between companies and consumers, and why corporations have a financial responsibility to think about both the opportunities and the risks created by AI.

The discussion then moves into one of the most complicated questions in artificial intelligence:

Who gets to decide what “bias” actually means?

When global AI models are trained across cultures, whose values should determine what gets removed, corrected, or labeled harmful? And could attempts to make AI “safe” unintentionally impose one culture’s values on the rest of the world?

From the EU AI Act and AI regulation to large language models, corporate responsibility, cultural bias, privacy, and what Dr. Dobrin calls technological colonialism, this conversation asks whether we can build responsible AI without slowing innovation — and who ultimately gets to define what responsible even means.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DR. LAWRENCE: calvindlawrence.com

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: @aiunhingedpodcast

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AI is changing healthcare—but what happens when the technology inherits the same biases already embedded in the system?

In Episode 2 of AI Unhinged, Dr. Calvin D. Lawrence sits down with Dr. Stacey Denise Moore, a physician, surgeon, and AI consultant whose work brings together medicine, technology, systems, and the human experience.

The conversation explores what happens when artificial intelligence moves beyond convenience and begins influencing decisions that can directly affect people’s health and quality of life.

From bias in healthcare technology and the experiences of Black patients to patient trust, automation, and the responsibility of the people building these systems, Dr. Lawrence and Dr. Moore examine a question that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore:

Can we use AI to improve healthcare without allowing it to reproduce the very inequities we are trying to solve?

This is not a conversation about whether AI is coming to healthcare.

It’s already here.

The question is whether we are building it with the right people in mind.

Welcome to Episode 2 of AI Unhinged.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DR. LAWRENCE: calvindlawrence.com

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: @aiunhingedpodcast

PRODUCED BY: ORGANIZED MOVEMENTS

Welcome to the inaugural episode of AI Unhinged.

Executive Producer Angel Forte sits down with host Dr. Calvin D. Lawrence for a candid introduction to the man behind the mission and the experiences that shaped his perspective on artificial intelligence.

Dr. Lawrence takes us from earning a master’s degree in artificial intelligence in 1993 to becoming a Distinguished Engineer, corporate technology leader, author, and practitioner who has spent decades actually building AI systems.

But this conversation goes far beyond credentials.

Dr. Lawrence opens up about the experiences that changed the way he viewed the technology he helped create, including the realization that AI systems built without the right guardrails can create very different outcomes for Black communities and other vulnerable populations. He discusses the inspiration behind his book, Hidden in White Sight, the difficult decision to challenge an industry he had spent his career inside, and why walking away from corporate America allowed him to approach AI differently.

They also explore bias in facial recognition, AI in policing, the lack of Black voices in corporate technology spaces, the personal cost of speaking up, and why simply telling companies to stop building AI is not the answer.

For Dr. Lawrence, the mission is clear: AI is going to be built. The question is whether we are willing to build it better.

This episode introduces the purpose behind AI Unhinged: giving a voice to people affected by artificial intelligence, challenging those building it, and creating honest conversations about what happens when technology leaves the lab and enters our lives.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DR. LAWRENCE: calvindlawrence.com

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: @aiunhingedpodcast

PRODUCED BY: ORGANIZED MOVEMENTS

Artificial intelligence is already shaping who gets hired, who gets watched, who gets believed, who gets left behind, and who holds the power.

AI Unhinged, hosted by Dr. Calvin D. Lawrence, goes beyond the hype to expose what AI is really doing to people, institutions, and communities.

Dr. Lawrence is a former IBM Distinguished Engineer, former Chief Technology Officer for Responsible AI at IBM, bestselling author, and builder of AI systems used around the world. He has worked in artificial intelligence since the 1990s and became the first Black person to earn a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence.

He has been in the boardrooms where technology decisions are made and in the communities where the consequences are felt.

Each episode confronts the issues others sanitize or avoid, including algorithmic bias, surveillance, automation, education, law enforcement, identity, trauma, human oversight, and the growing influence of AI on everyday life.

Because artificial intelligence is not neutral.

It reflects power. It encodes priorities. And without accountability, it can deepen the very inequalities it promises to solve.

Listen. Join the conversation. Challenge what you have been told. Subscribe to AI Unhinged.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DR. LAWRENCE: calvindlawrence.com

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: @aiunhingedpodcast

PRODUCED BY: ORGANIZED MOVEMENTS