New Report Reveals: With Safeguards, AI May Narrow the Racial Wealth Gap

Center for Civil Rights and Technology News 06.24.26

But unchecked, AI will continue to undermine the financial futures of communities of color, harden barriers to jobs, housing, and lending opportunities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [email protected] 

WASHINGTON — The Leadership Conference’s Center for Civil Rights and Technology released its latest report — AI in the Racial Wealth Gap: Deciding our Future (PDF version). The racial wealth gap in the United States is one of the most persistent measures of economic inequality. This report makes clear through people’s lived experiences that AI could narrow the racial wealth gap, but only if the right legal safeguards and corporate responsibility practices are in place. If the current status quo persists and AI remains unchecked, this technology will only continue to widen economic disparities between people of color, particularly Black people, and white people.

“Tech optimists often sell the story that AI will solve society’s problems; that it will be a new great equalizer. This research shows that’s possible, but only if we act now to ensure AI helps narrow the racial wealth gap, not widen the divide between the haves and the have-nots. The responsibility lies with government and industry leaders to create enforceable guardrails that ensure that Black communities and all communities of color also reap the economic benefits of AI. Our financial futures must be decided now, not later,” said Alejandra Montoya-Boyer, vice president, The Leadership Conference’s Center for Civil Rights and Technology. 

“Rigorous, necessary, and overdue. This report exposes a critical weakness in today’s AI systems: spatial and temporal blindness. Because place has been central to the creation and persistence of the racial wealth gap, any AI intended to reduce it must first account for place, history, and their enduring consequences,” said Michael Akinwumi, Chief AI Officer & Head of the Responsible AI Lab, National Fair Housing Alliance. 

“The report highlights the ripple effects of how employment decisions made with discriminatory AI products can have wider community and generational impacts. That’s why we support guardrails against algorithmic discrimination in the workplace as essential for upholding civil rights,” said Lauren McFerran, Executive Director, AFL-CIO Tech Institute. 

The research is based on qualitative interviews with people of color who believe they have been impacted by AI decision-making systems in their pursuit of wealth-building opportunities, including jobs, financial services, and housing. It illustrates their experiences of and attitudes on the technology in their economic mobility. The report also outlined several insights and takeaways from the literature and policy review and the qualitative interviews.

The report culminated in specific recommendations for stakeholders across sectors, including:

The full report is available here.

The Center for Civil Rights and Technology (Center) is a joint project of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. The Center, launched in September 2023, serves as a one-of-its-kind hub for advocacy, education, and research at the intersection of civil rights and technology. 

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

###