Buolamwini, Joy Adowaa
1989- · Contribution: 2016-2018
Computer scientist and digital activist
Founded the Algorithmic Justice League after discovering commercial facial recognition software could not detect her own face unless she wore a white mask; co-authored 'Gender Shades,' which forced IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon to overhaul their facial recognition products
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1989, Edmonton, Canada
- Active since
- 2016
- Category
- Technology & Engineering
- Best known for
- Exposing racial and gender bias in facial recognition
Impact on the world
Buolamwini turned a personal experience of being unseen by a machine into a global movement, providing the hard evidence that forced the tech industry to confront racial and gender bias in AI.
An alternative history
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Sources
- Book or scholarly workFind
MIT Technology Review
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Related visionaries
Gebru, Timnit
1982/1983-
Co-authored 'Gender Shades,' a landmark 2018 study proving major facial recognition systems were significantly less accurate on darker-skinned faces; co-founded Black in AI; her controversial 2020 departure from Google sparked one of the most prominent public debates over corporate AI ethics research
Raji, Inioluwa Deborah
1995/1996-
Co-authored the 2019 'Actionable Auditing' study with Joy Buolamwini, already profiled in this collection, directly leading Amazon to face sustained public pressure over racial and gender bias in its facial recognition technology; later co-authored major frameworks for internal AI accountability auditing alongside Timnit Gebru, also already profiled here
Abebe, Rediet
1991-
Algorithmic fairness research
Sweeney, Latanya
1972-
Data privacy and re-identification research; algorithmic fairness in computing