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Joy Buolamwini

Original nameJoy Buolamwini

Ghanaian-American Computer Scientist, Pioneer of Algorithmic Bias Research

The Math Behind the Algorithm · Theoretical Founders

The "Gender Shades" Research ProjectThe Algorithmic Justice LeagueResearch on Bias in Facial Recognition

Who they are

Joy Buolamwini is a computer scientist born in Ghana and raised in the US who during her MIT master’s launched the "Gender Shades" research project, systematically testing the recognition accuracy of several mainstream tech companies’ commercial facial-recognition systems across different skin-color and gender groups, and finding that these systems’ recognition accuracy for light-skinned men was generally very high while their error rate for dark-skinned women was markedly higher, the error-rate gap of some systems as high as dozens of percentage points, a result that thereafter prompted several tech companies including IBM and Microsoft to publicly pledge to improve the products or suspend providing facial-recognition to law enforcement. Buolamwini thereafter founded the non-profit "Algorithmic Justice League," continuing to push for stricter fairness review of AI technology before deployment.

Primary sourcesBuolamwini & Gebru, the "Gender Shades" research report (2018)

Key stories

A "White Mask" That Uncovered the Bias of Facial-Recognition Systems

In her early research Buolamwini found that some facial-recognition systems could not accurately recognize her own dark-skinned facial features, and only after she put on a white mask was she successfully recognized, and this striking personal experience prompted her to launch the "Gender Shades" research project, systematically testing and revealing the marked accuracy differences of mainstream commercial facial-recognition systems across different groups, this research thereafter widely seen as one of the key turning points in driving the AI industry to face squarely the issue of algorithmic fairness.

Relationships

Ally

🦜Timnit Gebru

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

Driving several companies to suspend face-recognition law-enforcement usesThe results of this research prompted several tech companies including IBM and Microsoft to publicly pledge to improve their products or suspend providing the technology to law-enforcement agencies, a case of academic research directly driving a change in industry policy.

Appears in

Algorithmic Bias and the Awakening of AI Ethics"Gender Shades" and "Stochastic Parrots"

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