Joy Buolamwini is a Ghanian-American computer scientist at MIT who researches algorithmic bias in computer vision systems and is focused on identifying bias in artificial intelligence and practices for accountability. She’s also the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League. Wildly accomplished, Joy’s research on this subject has been covered in over 40 countries. 

In this episode, we discuss how the tech industry has a tendency to center the potential of technology, while often overlooking existing gaps and outcomes that perpetuate harm. In Joy’s case, she identified racially biased facial recognition software that couldn’t detect her skin color due to outdated code. By re-writing the practices that perpetuate harmful bias, Joy calls herself a “poet of code.” Listen to learn about how Joy’s discoveries are evidence for why developing ethical software matters. 

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