‘Seeking Mavis Beacon’: Why Informed Consent Matters with AI – Essence

raises questions on AI, ethical storytelling, and the importance of informed consent. Directed by Jazmine Jones and co-produced by Olivia McKayla Ross, the film explores the true Black woman behind the avatar who helped a generation learn to type on a QWERTY keyboard.

The duo explores the story of Renée L’Espérance, who was the face of the software. She was paid as a model, but her warmth and sweetness helped her construct a fortune. Her powerful presence caused an enormous Mandela event, which made people imagine Mason Beacon was an actual person. Jones and Ross open up about their feelings about L’Espérance being almost completely erased from her contribution to culture.

“I love being uncomfortable and trying to find a way to deal with that discomfort,” Jones tells ESSENCE. “That’s something I was trained to do as a film student. But I also think that being uncomfortable can often have ethical consequences, and sometimes filmmakers sacrifice ethical integrity.”

“It was through collective organizing that I learned all about the work of heart-centered care,” Jones added. “I came from the school of thought that if you’re a filmmaker, put yourself into the work.”

Jones and McKay interact with Renée L’Espérance’s character with a caring presence in her absence that black women don’t all the time get in a virtual world rife with digital blackface. Ross feels comfortable “choosing to abandon the objective voice” that other documentarians present as gospel. “I think it’s important to give audiences people who need to be held accountable, because you so rarely get that in the media,” she explains. The film argues that “truth is actually fluid as hell.”

Behind L’Espérance’s radiant face is a trio of tech entrepreneurs. It’s unclear whether she understood what she was agreeing to when she agreed to a photograph shoot for the quilt of a software box. Their collaboration got young black kids excited concerning the web. But was it ethical? Was it fair?

“We can compare it to Aunt Jemimas and Uncle Bens. There are countless examples of how this has affected black people,” Jones says. The ambiguity reflects the confusion within the contracts of lots of the apps we are able to’t live without today. It looks as if we’ve got a alternative, but will we? Did L’Espérance have one?

“Our consent was fabricated for us,” Ross says.

The hidden details of the creative process affect many sorts of people. It identifies intersectionality within the shadows. It examines what gets neglected of a story when it’s told by a hoodie-wearing tech-bro or a wise suit. It doesn’t demonize the boys behind the software. It illuminates how narratives can puncture holes. L’Espérance wasn’t asked to look on talk shows or give TED talks.

According to Jones, the main focus is on “the struggles and erasure that black women experience,” but “there are also parallels and reflections of how the glass ceiling of Silicon Valley affects all women.”

At one point, a former partner of one in every of the executives behind the software has the chance to set the record straight, not only about L’Espérance but about himself. “Everyone sees the erasure of Renee, but I think it’s very rare that we get to talk about Sandra Blake’s contribution, and she didn’t get any compensation for her involvement,” Jones says.

McKay sees the digital landscape as the ultimate frontier of capitalist-inspired colonialism, and she or he told the audience that she plans to assist Jones clean up her digital footprint throughout the screening, organized by Stop Six Stories.

“This is the final frontier; we’re running out of land, we’re running out of resources, at least renewable resources,” Jones tells ESSENCE. “They can’t imprison people fast enough to use their bodies, so they’re kind of creating these systems, these behavior modification systems, to hypnotize you through social media and other apps and things that we use to give them things that are really valuable for free.”

Jones commented on her complicated connection to the fertile battlefield. “I really appreciate that work,” she says. “They really shaped the landscape of educational software that I grew up with.” As she fondly remembers their work, she grapples with the way it ended up on and off the screen.

“It’s also hard not to look at photos of employees and not notice that there isn’t a single black person in them.”

n is in select theaters now. Watch the trailer below.