October 31, 2025
“What, how, when, who? Those are important questions we should ask of any technology.”
Stacey Abrams recognizes artificial intelligence’s growing influence on society and believes that it could become “a tool for authoritarianism” if it’s misused.
Abrams, who recently released her tech-driven thriller Coded Justice, addressed the rise of AI during a fireside chat at AfroTech, noting that the future of the technology will depend on who controls the flow of information.
“Democracy decides what information is available because in an authoritarian regime, we limit access to information. In a democracy, information is free-flowing,” she said, according to Blavity. “If we do not control for and defend democracy, AI becomes a tool for authoritarianism. It becomes a tool for constraining knowledge, for constraining access, and for constraining how our lived experiences and how our lives are actually guided.”
Abrams, who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017 and became the first Black woman to earn a major-party nomination for Georgia governor in 2018, drew parallels to how the internet boom of the ’90s and 2000s was shaped by those in control.
“What, how, when, who? Those are important questions we should ask of any technology. Think about what we could have had if we had asked those questions when the internet was first starting out,” Abrams said.
“If we do not ask those questions, we have to live with the answers someone else gives us. And once those answers become embedded in how our lives are experienced, then we have to worry about someone throttling the algorithm on our TikTok feed, we get stuck and we never get to see anything we want to see.”
Since her gubernatorial run, Abrams has focused her efforts on fighting voter suppression and promoting fair elections through her organization, Fair Fight Action. The group leads public outreach, legal advocacy, and voter education efforts, training advocates and pushing for stronger election laws. Abrams believes the same accountability and ethical standards she and other business leaders apply to their work should also guide the use of AI.
“As an entrepreneur, I believe in the ability to ideate, to build, to launch a product,” she said. “But my responsibility as a citizen means that the safety of my customers, the safety of my community has to be paramount. AI should be held to those same standards.”
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