Icame to Cleveland, Ohio, for the 50th anniversary of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention. I expected the hallways to be buzzing with conversations about AI, and they were, but not in the way I’d hoped. For the first two days, the phrase I heard most from my fellow journalists was “we must protect ourselves.” In session after session, the consensus was that AI is a danger, a threat, an enemy coming to replace us.

Then I had breakfast at Betts, the restaurant in my hotel, and a single conversation with my waiter gave me another perspective on the AI revolution.

As he brought me the bill, I asked Kevin Knestrick, 49, if he used AI. Haunted by the fearful rhetoric from the convention, I expected him to either rebuff me or launch into an anti-AI tirade.

“Not real

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