Raji, Inioluwa Deborah
1995/1996- · Contribution: 2018-
Computer scientist and AI-accountability researcher
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
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1995, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
- Active since
- 2017
- Category
- Technology & Engineering
- Best known for
- Auditing facial recognition for racial and gender bias
Impact on the world
Raji helped build the practice of auditing AI systems for bias and put sustained public pressure on Amazon, advancing the tools companies use to hold their own algorithms accountable.
Sources
- Knight First Amendment Institute
1 more sources and references are available to members.
Related visionaries
Buolamwini, Joy Adowaa
1989-
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
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
Isbell, Charles Lee Jr.
1968-
AI and machine learning researcher who became dean of Georgia Tech's College of Computing, then provost of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; his own misidentified photograph became the center of a major public debate over AI bias between Timnit Gebru, already profiled in this collection, and Meta's chief AI scientist
Abebe, Rediet
1991-
Algorithmic fairness research