I know about him but not in the context of what AI has become..
Blackwell kinda remind me of the brilliant Black women mathematicians at NASA, especially someone like Katherine Johnson.

Which brings to this: A couple weeks ago I made the argument on another site that too many Black intellectuals & scholars are mediocre, at best. And I blamed programs like Affirmative Action which came about with good intentions but whose consequences turned out to be a disaster for us overall. One can make the argument that today's "diversity programs" are not all what it intended to be etc etc.

Even during the wicked days of segregation etc., we were still able to produce geniuses like David Blackwell, Katherine Johnson, W.E.B. Du Bois, with some of them whose early education started in ole rickety black schools.

Anyway I better stop before I get shot at...