The evolution of blackface in the age of AI

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With AI image and video generators, it's become easier than ever to create hyper-realistic clips of almost anything. Today, we're looking at the landscape of AI influencers that depict Black people in various ways, from the mildly stereotypical to the ultra-demeaning. And we're talking to writer Zeba Blay about why she thinks these types of videos can erode the our society's ability to take the problems of IRL, human Black people seriously.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Heads up, this episode contains clips of AI content.
0:05.2	I'm so sorry, folks.
0:07.8	Hey, everyone, you're listening to Code Switch.
0:11.3	I'm B.A. Parker.
0:13.5	Now, I don't know about y'all, but I've been online a lot recently,
0:17.9	and I've started seeing more and more generative AI images and videos.
0:23.5	And there's a type of figure I've started to see a lot of.
0:28.5	It's a black woman with a carefully curated look, so it's like clear brown skin,
0:34.9	flowing locks with slicked down baby hair, usually light eyes, airbrushed eyebrows.
0:42.4	There's Zanaya Monet, the Black AI R&B singer.
0:50.9	There's Amelia described as, quote, an AI twin strategist and digital automation, end quote.
1:01.6	Malibu was fun, pool party was crazy.
1:05.2	But now it's back to New York.
1:07.6	Time to lock back in.
1:09.1	And there's black barbs, a quote, unfiltered virtual diva who doles out savage advice,
1:16.6	women empowerment, confidence, and bold truths and batty healing.
1:22.6	Body count?
1:23.6	I'm counting dollars, not bodies.
1:26.6	Next dumb question.
1:28.3	Some people might think of this as harmless entertainment.
1:34.3	My inclination is to dismiss it all as AI slob.
1:38.3	But there's a case to be made that these and other types of AI constructions
	...

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