Buolamwini was born in Edmonton, Alberta, grew up in Mississippi, and attended Cordova High School in Cordova, Tennessee.[5] At age nine, she was inspired by Kismet, the MIT robot, and taught herself XHTML, JavaScript and PHP.[6][7] As a student-athlete, she was a competitive pole vaulter[8] and played basketball. In a podcast episode she recorded on Brené Brown's show "Dare to Lead", she recalls completing her AP Physics homework between basketball break times.[9]
As an undergraduate, Buolamwini studied computer science at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she researched health informatics.[10] Buolamwini graduated as a Stamps President's Scholar[11] from Georgia Tech in 2012,[12] and was the youngest finalist of the Georgia Tech InVenture Prize in 2009.[13]
Buolamwini is a Rhodes Scholar, a Fulbright fellow, a Stamps Scholar, an Astronaut Scholar, and an Anita Borg Institute scholar.[14] As a Rhodes Scholar, she studied learning and technology at the University of Oxford, where she was a student based at Jesus College, Oxford.[15][16] During her scholarship she took part in the first formal Service Year, working on community focused projects.[16][17] She was awarded a Master's Degree in Media Arts & Sciences from MIT in 2017 for research supervised by Ethan Zuckerman.[1] She was awarded a PhD degree in Media Arts & Sciences from the MIT Media Lab in 2022 with a thesis on Facing the Coded Gaze with Evocative Audits and Algorithmic Audits.[18]
Career and research
In 2011, Buolamwini worked with the trachoma program at the Carter Center to develop an Android-based assessment system for use in Ethiopia.[19][6]
Interface from Joy Buolamwini’s Gender Shades project evaluating biases in facial recognition systemsJoy Buolamwini at Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town
As a Fulbright fellow, in 2013 she worked with local computer scientists in Zambia to help Zambian youth become technology creators.[20] On September 14, 2016, Buolamwini appeared at the White House summit on Computer Science for All.[21]
Buolamwini was a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, where she worked to identify bias in algorithms and to develop practices for accountability during their design;[22] at the lab, Buolamwini was a member of Ethan Zuckerman's Center for Civic Media group.[23][24] During her research, Buolamwini showed 1,000 faces to facial recognition systems and asked the systems to identify whether faces were female or male, and found that the software found it hard to identify dark-skinned women.[25] Her project, Gender Shades, became part of her MIT thesis.[1][26] Her 2018 paper Gender Shades: Intersectional Accuracy Disparities in Commercial Gender Classification[27] prompted responses from IBM and Microsoft to take corrective actions to improve the accuracy of their algorithms, swiftly improved their software demonstrating her influence on the industry.[28][29] She also created the Aspire Mirror, a device that lets users see a reflection of themselves based on what inspires them.[30] Her program, Algorithmic Justice League, aims to highlight the bias in code that can lead to discrimination against underrepresented groups.[31] She has created two films, Code4Rights and Algorithmic Justice League: Unmasking Bias.[32][33] Still the director, Code4rights is an advocacy organization started in 2012 intended to use technology to spread awareness of human rights.[34] She served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Techturized Inc., a hair-care technology company.[10]
Buolamwini's research was cited in 2020 as an influence for Google and Microsoft in addressing gender and race bias in their products and processes.[35]
She also served as an advisor to President Biden ahead of his administration's Executive Order 14110, released October 30, 2023. The order is also known as the Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (sometimes referred to as "Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence").[36][37]
In 2023, she published her first book, Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines, which chronicles her research.[38] Through her book:
Buolamwini delves into the social implications of AI and warns of the biases in facial analysis systems, as well as their potential harm to millions of people - especially if they reinforce existing stereotypes.[39][40]
She advocates for the development of inclusive datasets, transparent auditing, and ethical policies to mitigate the discriminatory impact of AI.[41]
AI Bias and Gender Equity
Dr. Joy Buolamwini’s research on AI bias has been pivotal in advancing gender equity within engineering and technology. Her research found that AI-powered facial-recognition systems showed higher error rates when identifying darker-skinned women, with rates reaching 34.7%, compared to 0.8% for lighter-skinned men. These disparities indicated potential biases in algorithmic design, where biased training data and incomplete evaluation processes led to unequal technological outcomes based on both gender and skin tone.[42]
Buolamwini’s personal experience with AI performance limitations motivated her research into algorithmic bias. While working on a facial-recognition-based art project at the MIT Media Lab, she discovered that commercial AI systems could not consistently detect her face due to her darker skin. This frustration inspired her landmark research project Gender Shades, which rigorously evaluated facial analysis systems from IBM, Microsoft, and Face++. Her study revealed that these systems were most accurate for lighter-skinned men, with error rates as low as 1%, while their accuracy plummeted for darker-skinned women, with misclassification rates as high as 47%.[43]
Realizing that these failures stemmed from data imbalances, Buolamwini introduced the Pilot Parliaments Benchmark, a diverse dataset designed to address the lack of representation in typical AI training sets, which were composed of over 75% male and 80% lighter-skinned faces. This new benchmark set a critical precedent for evaluating and improving AI performance by ensuring more equitable testing standards.[43]
Her findings contributed to significant changes in the tech industry. Following the publication of her research, companies such as IBM and Microsoft took steps to improve their algorithms, reducing bias and enhancing accuracy. However, Buolamwini has noted that improved technical accuracy alone does not eliminate risks of potential misuse in areas such as racial profiling, surveillance, and hiring decisions.[43]
To address these concerns, Buolamwini co-founded the Safe Face Pledge, encouraging tech companies to adopt ethical AI practices. The pledge prohibits weaponizing facial recognition, bans lawless police use, and demands transparency in government surveillance applications. Her advocacy emphasizes that achieving fairness in AI development requires a multi-faceted approach, including regulatory frameworks and collaborative efforts.[43]
Activism
Logo of the Algorithmic Justice League
Buolamwini founded the Algorithmic Justice League (AJL) in 2016 to promote equitable and accountable artificial intelligence (AI).[44] The AJL organization integrates art and research to examine societal implications and reduce AI-related harms. The company works to raise public awareness of AI’s impact while advancing research on bias mitigation. It also addresses issues at the intersection of equity and technology, promoting more inclusive and accessible engineering systems. AJL has also encouraged public engagement through interactive campaigns, exhibitions, and educational initiatives, ensuring a broad audience is informed about the impact of biased algorithms on gender equity.
To broaden its outreach, AJL has partnered with organizations such as Black Girls Code to encourage African-American girls to pursue STEM careers, thereby fostering more diversity in the tech industry. AJL conducts workshops and provides resources aimed at educating the public and tech community about AI biases, with a focus on empowering underrepresented genders to engage with and challenge these systems.
The success of AJL reflects the collective efforts of its team. Some key members of the Algorithmic Justice League include Rachel Fagen, the Chief of Staff, who focuses on organizational development and building connections to promote equitable and accountable AI. Aurum Linh serves as the AI Harms Analyst, dedicated to identifying and mitigating the adverse effects of artificial intelligence. The Algorithm Justice League works with various groups, including CORE funders, advisory committees, and research collaborators, to enhance transparency and accountability in AI systems, ensuring that its advocacy efforts remain impactful and inclusive.[45]
The AJL website provides information and a live blog.[46] There are several sections on the site where users can share stories, and donate or write to US Congressional representatives. Buolamwini has influenced policy discussions to address gender discrimination in AI applications, advocating for regulations that ensure fairness in AI-powered decision-making systems. In 2019, she testified before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Reform about the risks of facial recognition technology.[47] Her testimony emphasized the need for accountability in the deployment of facial recognition technologies, particularly in areas where these systems could exacerbate gender inequities.
She believed the executive order fell short in terms of redress, or consequences, for AI systems that hurt minority communities.[48] Her efforts supported the inclusion of measures to address discrimination in AI applications, particularly in areas like hiring, housing, and criminal justice. Biden’s executive order is a “long and ongoing process” which is happening because the industry is not incentivized to do so she said.[49]
Joy Buolamwini, through the Algorithmic Justice League (AJL), has been instrumental in advocating for the inclusion and support of women, transgender, and non-binary individuals in the technology sector. Her initiatives focus on exposing and mitigating biases in artificial intelligence (AI) that disproportionately affect these underrepresented groups.
Buolamwini has led campaigns targeting gender equity in AI and technology. In 2021, she collaborated with Olay on the Decode the Bias campaign, which examined biases in beauty algorithms affecting women of color. This initiative evaluated Olay's Skin Advisor System to ensure equitable treatment across all skin tones.[50]
Building on these initiatives, AJL launched the Community Reporting of Algorithmic System Harms (CRASH), which unites key stakeholders to develop tools that enable broader participation in creating accountable and equitable AI systems, directly addressing issues that affect underrepresented genders.[51]
While her methodology and results have faced criticism from industries like Amazon, she explained in her TED talk how she addressed the 'coded gaze' by highlighting its neglect of the intersection between “social impact, technology, and inclusion.[56]
Her Voicing Erasure project highlights gender equity by exposing biases in voice recognition systems, particularly those that often fail to accurately process speech from women and non-binary individuals. This project advocates for more inclusive AI development by raising awareness of these limitations.[57]
The Coded Gaze
The Coded Gaze is a mini-documentary that debuted at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2016, and is currently available via YouTube. Buolamwini uses the mini documentary to talk about the bias that she believes lies in artificial intelligence's function. The inspiration for the mini documentary and her research came when she was at MIT, creating her art "Aspire Mirror," which uses facial recognition to reflect another person who inspires a user, onto that user's face.[58] Buolamwini anticipated having Serena Williams, another dark-skinned woman, reflected onto her face. However, the technology did not recognize her face. Buolamwini's research investigated why this happened, and consequently led Buolamwini to conclude that the exclusion of people who look like her was a result of a practice she called the "Coded Gaze."[59] She further discusses this concept in the mini documentary, "The Coded Gaze." The documentary explores how AI can be subject to racial and gender biases that reflect the views and cultural backgrounds of those who develop it.[60]
Coded Bias is a documentary film directed by Shalini Kantayya that features Buolamwini’s research about AI inaccuracies in facial recognition technology and automated assessment software.[61][46] It focuses on what the film's creators regard as a lack of regulation of facial recognition tools sold by IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon, and which they say perpetuates racial and gender bias. The film describes a dispute between Brooklyn tenants and a building management company that tried to use facial recognition to control entry to a building. The film featured Weapons of Math Destruction author Cathy O'Neill and members of Big Brother Watch in London, including Silkie Carlo. On April 5, 2021, the documentary was made available to stream on Netflix.[62]
Exhibitions
Projects conducted by Algorithmic Justice League have been exhibited at art institutions including the Barbican Centre in London, UK, and Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria.[63]
The Criminal Type (2019) Exhibition at APEXART, New York, NY, US[64]
AI: More than Human (2019) Exhibition at the Barbican Centre, London, UK[66]
Nine Moments for Now (2018) Exhibition at the Hutchins Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, US[67]
Big Bang Data (2018) Exhibition at MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA, US[68]
Awards and honors
In 2017, Buolamwini was awarded the grand prize in the professional category in the Search for Hidden Figures contest, tied to the release of the film Hidden Figures in December 2016.[69] The contest, sponsored by PepsiCo and 21st Century Fox, was intended to "help uncover the next generation of female leaders in science, technology, engineering and math,"[70] and attracted 7,300 submissions from young women across the United States.[12]
In 2019, Buolamwini was listed in Fortune magazine's 2019 list of the "World's 50 Greatest Leaders," where the magazine described her as "the conscience of the A.I. revolution."[77] She also made the inaugural Time 100 Next list in 2019.[78] In 2020, Buolamwini featured in a women's empowerment campaign by the clothing company Levi's for International Women's Day.[79] She was also featured in the documentary Coded Bias.[80] In 2020, an honoree of the Great Immigrants Award named by Carnegie Corporation of New York.[81]
In 2022, Buolamwini was named the ASQ Hutchens Medalist.[82] In 2023, she was listed in the Time 100 AI.[83]
In June 9, 2024, Buolamwini was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Dartmouth College for her work in exposing biases in AI systems and preventing AI harms. She was also invited as the keynote speaker for Dartmouth's 2024 Social Justice Awards.[84]
Personal life
Buolamwini has lived in Ghana; Barcelona, Spain; Oxford, United Kingdom; and, in the U.S., Memphis, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia.[13] She describes herself as a "daughter of the science and of the arts",[9] her father being an Academic and her mother an artist, as well as a Poet of Code.[9]
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References
1 2 3 Buolamwini, Joy Adowaa (2017). Gender shades: intersectional phenotypic and demographic evaluation of face datasets and gender classifiers (MS thesis). MIT. hdl:1721.1/114068. OCLC1026503582.
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