Why I Created the National AI Equity Lab

I will always be a staunch proponent of actual intelligence—humans reading, writing, creating, synthesizing, learning, thinking critically for ourselves and sharing knowledge person to person. Notwithstanding, I see it as my civic duty to ensure that the proliferation of artificial intelligence does not further exacerbate existing inequities within and between groups of people in our society. I also recognize that new, potentially more catastrophic disparities will rapidly emerge in the absence of substantive equity-minded practices, partnerships and policies governing AI development and use.

This week, I began seeking philanthropic support to launch the National AI Equity Lab. It will be housed in the center that I founded 15 years ago at the University of Pennsylvania and that relocated with me to the University of Southern California in 2017. My work with more than 400 educational institutions and businesses—including big tech companies (Google, Microsoft, SAS, Zoom and Sify, to name a few)—informs the lab’s agenda. My concern about tech inequities is neither new nor opportunistic; it goes back nearly 30 years.

I remember my first encounter with the digital divide. I was a student at Albany State, a public historically Black university in Georgia. In 1997, the summer before my senior year, 11 other HBCU undergraduates and I were selected to participate in a graduate school preparation program at Columbia University. Access to the internet, including email, was so new, limited and unreliable on our campuses. When we got to the Ivy League university, it was instantly apparent to us just how technologically disadvantaged our HBCUs were.

This recognition was reinforced three months after I earned my bachelor’s degree from Albany State. I took my typewriter to graduate school at Indiana University, a predominantly white institution. Many students there had already moved on to laptops and more sophisticated word-processing devices. The internet and email did not seem so new at IU. I still remember wishing at that time that peers at my undergraduate alma mater—over 80 percent of whom were Black and 70 percent of whom were Pell Grant recipients—had access to similar resources that would enable them to compete for high-tech jobs. Today, I am repeatedly reminded of that feeling as I visit underresourced HBCUs and community colleges that do more than their fair share of educating low-income Americans.

Beyond higher education, I have been to hundreds of underfunded K–12 public schools in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and other big cities across the country. My work has also taken me inside some of America’s wealthiest private independent K–12 schools. Massive technological differences between these educational environments are cruel and indefensible. The COVID-19 pandemic confirmed that the digital divide had not been closed. This was evidenced by inequitable access to reliable, high-speed internet for remote learning. CBS News reported that many low-income K–12 students had to sit in cars outside businesses to access free Wi-Fi for schooling during the pandemic. According to Inside Higher Ed, lots of low-income collegians across the country were also learning in their cars at that time.

Regardless of how people feel about AI, it is here now. We are forced to contend with it. Allowing it to evolve and expand without attention to inequities is guaranteed to further widen the long-standing digital divide. This will significantly disadvantage girls and women, people of color, low-income Americans, and others who make our country diverse. The U.S. economy also will be harmed as inequitable access to AI tools, widespread AI illiteracy and algorithmic biases lock millions of its citizens out of jobs. These are just some of many reasons why I created the National AI Equity Lab.

Launching in summer 2026, the lab will strategically address inequities in the development, implementation and scaling of AI technologies. Specifically, my team and I are preparing to do the following:

Create partnerships and substantive opportunities for students in underresourced K–12 public schools across America to become equitably upskilled in existing and emerging AI technologies.
Create partnerships and substantive opportunities for students at historically Black colleges and universities, community colleges, and other minority-serving institutions to become equitably upskilled in existing and emerging AI technologies.

Develop equity-focused rubrics, protocols and processes to rigorously assess AI development and use in educational institutions, local and state government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and corporations.
Advise practitioners and leaders in educational institutions and other organizations on ways to address inequities in the development, implementation and scaling of AI technologies.
Unite scholars across academic disciplines within and beyond USC to conduct, disseminate and improve the use of high-quality research on an expansive range of equity-focused AI topics.
Unite national civil rights and local community-based organizations to develop collective responses to AI inequities.

Host an annual in-person conference, as well as virtual convenings focused on improving equity in the development, implementation and scaling of AI technologies.
Leverage intelligence gathered through the lab’s collaborations with educational institutions, organizations and local communities to inform the development of equity-minded AI legislation at local, state and federal policymaking levels.
Leverage the lab’s social and digital media platforms to raise public consciousness and inspire collective action in response to AI inequities.
Showcase individuals, institutions and organizations across America that are equitably developing, implementing and scaling AI technologies.

Despite their breadth, depth and rigor, these activities will not be enough to fully eradicate AI inequities. However, I am certain that they will make a significant impact on people, educational institutions, professions and communities. I know from decades of firsthand experience that attempting to solve colossal societal problems all on my own is impossible. Hence, the lab’s activities are decidedly collaborative and will rely on substantive partnerships with others who are committed to ensuring that AI development and use is equitable. Hopefully, this compels philanthropists and others to invest.

Shaun Harper is University Professor and Provost Professor of Education, Business and Public Policy at the University of Southern California, where he holds the Clifford and Betty Allen Chair in Urban Leadership. His most recent book is titled Let’s Talk About DEI: Productive Disagreements About America’s Most Polarizing Topics.

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