Generative AI's race problem
It's Been a Minute
NPR
4.7 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 16 June 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brittany’s been getting served a lot of AI generated videos of older Asian men, who seem to be feng shui experts of some kind, espousing the benefits of having a “lazy wife” in your household. But it doesn’t stop there. Today’s guest, Bridget Todd, host of There Are No Girls on the Internet and author of the audiobook, Love at First Prompt: AI and the Future of Intimacy, has been ringing the alarm about AI generated videos featuring Black women. Some are AI slop, while others perpetuate harmful stereotypes about Black women -- and there’s a market for it.
Bridget joins the show to get into how generative AI has skewed perceptions around race, gender, and privilege online.
Bridget's first audiobook, Love at First Prompt: AI and the Future of Intimacy, is available for pre-order now from LoveAtFirstPrompt.AI and comes out July 14th from Simon & Schuster.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you can get a few bucks for making a viral AI-generated video that pops off, |
| 0:05.1 | whether it traffics in like racially inflammatory content or not, |
| 0:09.7 | our platforms, a lot of them are designed such that, unfortunately, |
| 0:13.6 | there is financial incentives to making this kind of content. |
| 0:20.2 | Hello, hello. |
| 0:21.7 | I'm Brittany Luce and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's |
| 0:26.5 | going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. |
| 0:48.2 | Our guest today, there are no girls on the internet podcast host, Bridget Todd, has been ringing the alarm about AI-generated videos featuring black women. |
| 0:54.5 | Some are relatively harmless AI slop, but a lot of them lean into really harmful stereotypes. |
| 0:57.7 | And to no one's surprise, there's a market for it. |
| 1:02.2 | Bridget joins the show to get into how our preconceived notions about race, gender, |
| 1:06.7 | and privilege have made conversations around generative AI, a social mind field. |
| 1:09.6 | Bridget, welcome back to It's Been a Minute. |
| 1:12.6 | Thank you for having me. It's been a minute. It's been a minute. It literally has been a minute. |
| 1:14.6 | I'm happy to have you here for so many reasons. |
| 1:18.6 | But, you know, before we get into the things that you've come across online, I just want to start with something that's come across my TikTok feed too many times, |
| 1:31.0 | too many times. |
| 1:32.9 | Have you heard of a song called Phenomenal Black Woman? |
| 1:37.4 | Perchance? |
| 1:37.8 | I have not heard a phenomenal black woman. |
| 1:41.1 | Ah! |
| 1:45.4 | This is honestly best case scenario. |
... |
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