Highlighting a Woman in Tech
A bit on the inspirational Joy Buolamwini…a woman you should know about
Joy Buolamwini refers to herself as ‘the daughter of art and science’, a poet of code who uses art and research to illuminate the social implications of artificial intelligence. She is a Stamps Scholar, Rhodes Scholar, a Fulbright Fellow, an Astronaut Scholar and an Anita Borg Institute Scholar!! Her mission is to show compassion through computation by using technology in service of others.
Born in Alberta, Canada in 1989 and growing up in Mississippi, Ghanaian-American Buolamwini was inspired to learn programming at the age of 9 upon seeing the MIT Media robot Kismet.
She attended The Georgia Institute of Technology receiving a BS in Computer Science in 2012. As a Stamps scholar, Buolamwini researched health informatics and worked with a non-profit to build an electronic data gathering system to help combat neglected tropical diseases.
Joy has two master’s degree, a MSc Education Learning and Technology from the University of Oxford and a MS Media Arts and Science from MIT. In Zambia, as a Fulbright Fellow at Oxford University and in the UK as a Rhodes Scholar, Buolamwini partnered with grassroots organizations and local computer scientists to equip and empower youth to create rights apps. Currently, she is a PhD candidate at MIT and is working on a forthcoming book entitled Justice Decoded.
While creating her device “Aspire Mirror”, which uses facial recognition to enable the user to look at themselves and see a reflection based on what inspires them or what they hope to empathize with, Buolamwini found that the facial recognition technology did not perceive her face. Joy concluded that it didn’t recognize dark skin, a failing which she termed the ‘coded gaze’. Her mini documentary unveiled at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in 2016, The Coded Gaze: Unmasking Algorithmic Bias, explores how AI is subject to racial and gender biases that reflect the views and cultural backgrounds of those who develop it. Joy was further inspired to create a spoken word poem and video called AI: Ain’t I a Woman? Her 2017 MIT thesis Gender Studies methodology uncovered racial and gender bias in AI services from companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon. The research showed facial recognition systems found it hard to identify dark-skinned people, women in particular, due to the prevalence of pale, male face datasets. The research is cited as an influence for Google and Microsoft in addressing gender and race bias in their products and processes. In 2020, these companies stepped back from selling facial recognition technology to law enforcement.
As if these achievements weren’t enough to keep her schedule full, Joy started Techturized Hair with three other women. The company uses scientific analyses of hair strands to generate personalized product recommendations.
AND, Joy founded Algorithmic Justice League (AJL) to help create a world with more equitable and accountable technology . The organization looks to challenge bias in decision-making software by underscoring the bias in code that can lead to discrimination against underrepresented groups. It does so by blending art and research to highlight the social implications and harms of AI.
Buolamwini, as an advocate for algorithmic justice, serves on the Global Tech Panel to advise world leaders and executives on reducing AI harms working with both frontline organizers and lawmakers at the federal and multinational level in order to elevate the excoded — those harmed by algorithmic harms. She writes op-eds and shares her research with a wide audience so that more people are aware of the limitations of algorithmic systems. Joy further advocates for intentionally creating inclusive code — which she calls Incoding, a mindset that asks who is missing.
Coded Bias, a 2020 documentary film, features both Buolamwini and her research about AI inaccuracies in facial recognition technology and automated assessment software. The film focuses on the lack of regulation of facial recognition tools sold by IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon that perpetuate racial and gender bias.
Inspired by Allison Koenecke’s research and exclusion, a newer project at AJL, Voicing Erasure, is leading research uncovering the biases of voice systems which they’ve discovered have the most trouble with African American Vernacular in English speakers. Additionally, the project addresses the harmful gender stereotypes perpetuated by the subservient nature of Siri, Alexa, and Cortona. Buolamwini coauthored a spoken word poem to bring attention to bias in voice systems.
Always working, always educating, below is a list of other achievements and recognition:
TEDx talk at Beacon Street entitled How I’m fighting bias in algorithms
In 2018 appeared on TED Radio Hour
Featured on Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls in 2018
Awarded the grand prize in the professional category in Search for Hidden Figures contest, which intends to ‘help uncover the next generation of female leaders in science, technology, engineering and math.’
Forbes 30 under 30
Bloomberg50
Made the inaugural Time Next 100 in 2019
One of four ‘design heroes who are defending democracy online’ by Fast company
Fortune Magazine’s 2019 list of the Worlds Greatest Leaders, termed as ‘the conscience of the A.I. revolution.’
