With executive orders to dismantle the Department of Education, and micromanage diversity and inclusion across federal programs and academic curriculums, the future of equity in academia is at a standstill. Thus, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) nationwide are adamant about upholding the future of diversity in digital advancement, particularly through leading in artificial intelligence (AI).
“When HBCUs are at the forefront, when we are the breeding ground of innovation – out of necessity, too – we do it for everyone. It’s a humanity-first effort all the time within HBCUs,” said Dr. Muhsinah Morris, Metaversity director at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Morehouse College’s innovative Metaversity program aims to immerse students in academic learning and engagement through a virtual reality experience based on real or hypothetical occurrences. Morris emphasized the importance of HBCUs in advancing digital breakthroughs, noting the historical roots of African American culture in society.
“Black people are the culture, we define the culture,” she said. “So why shouldn’t we design the future?”
As historically Black colleges and universities have long served as incubators of innovation and excellence, institutions like Morehouse, Maryland’s Morgan State University and Northwest D.C.’s Howard University are continuing the legacy with trailblazing efforts to increase AI literacy in communities of color.
For Morehouse College, piloting artificial intelligence in academics began in spring of 2021, when Dr. Morris and three other professors spearheaded immersive virtual reality as a teaching modality amid the anomalies of distant learning during COVID-19.
What initially started as a pilot project to ensure matriculation soon became the blueprint for the nation’s first “metaversity” virtual reality experience, now followed by more than 120 existing “Metaverses” in historically Black institutions across the nation.
Now, through the collaborative efforts of VictoryXR and OpenAI, Morehouse is continuing to forge paths in technology education by implementing AI teaching assistants and textbook assistance in multiple disciplines.
“Innovation is the only way that I can see that you overcome 20 generations of inequity,” Morris explained. “If we don’t continue to innovate and springboard off of the thing that is available to us right now, we will basically keep ourselves down as a community.”
Virtual 3D spatial avatars have been made available 24/7 to bring professor-created content to life, offering personalized learning support that features two-way oral conversations– including in a student’s native language– and the use of three-dimensional models to ensure an all-inclusive learning experience.
While the novel technique is still in the developing stages, and thus far only implemented in “several small courses,” Morris said the program has already shown promising feedback.
Moreover, according to Axios, the educator hopes to have an AI assistant for every professor in the next three to five years.
“We have gotten to a place where technology is moving faster in the last two years than it has in the last 24 years,” Morris told The Informer. “[It’s] necessary for Morehouse, for me, to lead that effort and not ask for a place at the table, but to build the table the way that they wanted to see it.”
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