AI for the People: How One Mike Ilitch School of Business Professor Is Rethinking Technology and Community

The Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University is dedicated to exploring unique applications of emerging technologies to fuel innovation and empower health in our urban neighborhoods. Kwame Porter Robinson, assistant professor of technology, information systems and analytics, embodies this mission by using new AI technologies to create stronger local economies in Detroit and around the world.  

Robinson had a non-traditional path to becoming a technologist, earning an undergraduate degree in fine arts and graphic design from Boston University in 2002 and a bachelor degree in electrical engineering from New Mexico State University in 2008. 

After working for some time at the U.S. Department of Defense, Robinson earned a masters degree in computer science from the University of Maryland in 2012. 

“After moving back to Michigan to be with family I decided to launch my own data science consulting business,” said Robinson. “After a number of years doing that, I decided it was time for a Ph.D. and I went to earn mine from the University of Michigan in Information Sciences.”  

Robinson then accepted a position at the Mike Ilitch School of Business in the Department of Technology, Information Systems and Analytics.  

“A big reason I came to the Ilitch School was the deep and long-standing connection with local Detroit businesses,” explained Robinson. “My research involved something called community-based economies and I saw in the Ilitch School a big reflection of my own work. 

“People within the business school work together with people looking to do entrepreneurship, work with innovative technologies and AI in particular.”  

Robinson believes that AI can be useful at the local level to strengthen communities and build resilient economies. We just need to rethink our concept of what we consider valuable. 

“The idea is that value can mean profit, but value can also mean other things,” said Robinson. “By changing what’s valuable to you and to others within the community, you have new ways of standing up, new kinds of businesses and new kinds of economies. I think that AI and automation is one of the best ways to do this.”  

In this context, AI can be a tool to help businesses and individuals connect to the resources and services they need at a local level. By working directly with these communities, technologists can design AI programs specialized to fill niche community-oriented needs. 

This could take the form of business owners coming together to create an AI directory, to route customers to local businesses rather than national corporations. It can also take the form of product authentication.  

 “If someone is trying to copy your product, AI can detect the forgery and work with you and others with similar concerns, to protect your products,” said Robinson. “AI can connect these businesses together on a platform where customers can not only authenticate their products, but learn more about other people doing similar work.” 

Robinson has had success using AI to authenticate Kente cloth, a traditional woven cloth from Ghana that has become popular around the world. As Kente cloth rose in popularity, mass produced forgeries have become a real problem on the online market. Traditional weaving takes time, and authentic products are more expensive, whereas knockoffs can be sold at a fraction of the price, undercutting the traditional tradespersons.  

“We looked into machine learning, and decided to apply it to this problem,” said Robinson. “Kente cloth in Ghana carries a number of significant symbols and icons that symbolize metaphors and knowledge from the past. Machine learning can use these symbols to help us recognize a Chinese fake versus authentically woven cloth.” 

For Robinson, this development raises questions about the direction of AI globally, and what its proponents can and should be doing to ethically shape its direction.  

“A lot of the critiques that point to AI as taking jobs are actually critiques of AI created in a top-down fashion,” explained Robinson. “Large corporations make this AI and deploy it, but there’s no connection to the community or the people that are going to use it.” 

Robinson wants to flip the script. By developing bottom-up AI, he believes that AI can address the specific needs of the community, without disrupting them in a negative way. 

“Framing is important to consider here,” said Robinson. “What if we made AI from the bottom-up, and made it more local? That’s when you get really interesting developments. Not only ones that are more resilient, but also supportive to this local economy.”  

While at the beginning stages of his research, Robinson hopes that his research can help create more resilient economies, not only in terms of staying power but in terms of the impact they have on the local communities.  

“There’s ways to view AI and make AIs that become interwoven into our economic and social fabric that make it stronger,” said Robinson. “I think to take this community-based approach and look at supply chains from a bottom-up perspective, it starts to make your state or city level communities more resilient in terms of the materials they require.”  

As AI globally develops more capability, Robinson is confident that his approach can put people first, and generate strong, resilient communities-based economies.  

“It’s not just a dollar bill, its the ties between people, which have another fundamental value. By looking at ties between people you’re able to really ensure that these technologies develop in a social fashion.”

-Patrick Bernas, Information Officer III

The Wayne State University Mike Ilitch School of Business prepares students for challenging and rewarding careers, advances the boundaries of scholarly and practitioner knowledge, and enhances the economic vitality of the city of Detroit, the state of Michigan and beyond through its programs, research and community engagement. Established in 1946, the business school was renamed in 2015 in recognition of a $40 million gift from Mike and Marian Ilitch. Thanks to this lead investment, the school moved to a new state-of-the-art building in the heart of the District Detroit in 2018, and academic programming and collaboration with city businesses are expanding. For more information, visit ilitchbusiness.wayne.edu.