As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in decisions that affect economic opportunity, a new report co-authored by University of the District of Columbia (UDC) David A. Clarke School of Law Professor Yvette N. A. Pappoe, warns that AI-driven systems are producing cascading harms for communities of color across housing, employment and lending that together determine how wealth is built in America at a scale and speed that, if left unchecked, could widen the racial wealth gap faster than any policy intervention can close it.
AI in the Racial Wealth Gap was co-authored by Pappoe, University of Connecticut Law Professor Nadiyah J. Humber and Human Development and Family Sciences doctoral candidate Darlis Pantoja-Benavides, and sponsored by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Center for Civil Rights & Technology.
The racial wealth gap — the systematic disparity in accumulated assets and financial resources between white and Black households — remains one of the nation's most persistent measures of economic inequality. As of 2022, the median white household held approximately $285,000 in net wealth, compared with approximately $45,000 for the median Black household. The report explored ways that AI systems trained on data shaped by historical discrimination risk widening that gap further. For example, when an algorithmic decision in one domain, such as a credit denial, leads to housing instability or job loss, the compounding effects fall hardest on the communities already most economically vulnerable.
"The problem is not inherently AI," said Pappoe. "The more precise problem is that these systems are being trained on data shaped by decades of discrimination, and the people designing, testing, deploying and adopting them are not always recognizing that. If you build on a discriminatory foundation, you get a discriminatory output, and AI technology alone cannot solve that.”
Rather than arguing against the use of AI, the report calls for stronger oversight and accountability. Among its recommendations are greater transparency in algorithmic decision-making, independent audits of AI systems used in lending and housing, stronger worker protections and meaningful opportunities for marginalized communities to participate in oversight.
The report contributes to a growing national conversation about AI’s role in shaping economic opportunity and underscores UDC Law's leadership in policy, civil rights and justice-centered legal scholarship.