JUSTICE In the fall of 2022, while the topics of this book and AI in general were very much top-of-mind for me, I visited the Legacy Museum at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama. Bryan Stevenson, EJI’s founder and Executive Direc- tor, is someone I respect and admire very much. His view, with which I agree, is that we should judge our moral character and nobility as a society by how we treat the poor, the disenfran- chised, and the powerless. An equal, effective justice system is a basic prerequisite for achieving our highest potential. We cannot hope to lift up one portion of society while leaving others behind, and as such, the basic concept of justice has been vitally important to me for a long time. For us to simply say of slavery, “That was the past, and now we are fine” is badly self-deceptive and destructive, and to be reminded of slavery’s tangible evil through the hard but neces- sary work of people like Bryan and others at EJI is a necessary part of combating its aftermath. Located near one of the most infamous slave auction sites in the U.S., the Legacy Museum does a spectacular job of remind- ing us how the lasting effects of this particular form of cruelty, torture, and economic exploitation echoes in our history. 66