Extra Credit Blog 02

Coded Bias took a much cleaner approach to the topic of AI in our daily life. The induction of the work done by Joy Buolamwini who is a person of color, only to have their work be invalidated by an AI camera system that doesn’t like their skin tone sets the stage for what is to come. They contracted a facial recognition software for a project they were working on, but it would only work if they had a white mask on, and would not work with their face. Joy then works with Cathy O'Neil to discuss the usage of facial recognition software in cities. They found that the police and government are using them to track individuals and this tracking has led to many biased iterations with people of color. The system was shown to inaccurately mark people as criminals or have police check people of color for no reason other than the system marked them. Many times people in the industry that profit off of these systems attempt to discredit Joy, but that doesn’t stop her. As a self described person of color she moved to challenge those companies and worked to get the use of the facial recognition systems banned from use on the public.

Another instance was covered in Cathy O’Neil’s book that I have written about before, one of her friends was evaluated wrong in an algorithm that rated them as teachers. That wrong evaluation caused them to be fired and after evaluation they were fired for no valid reason. They were reinstated in their position, but this means we need to evaluate even more systems.

I can’t pick a favorite leader in this movie, that’s not possible. Joy and Cathy both have the intelligence and power to fight these systems. The documentary mostly follows Joy, but I have ready Cathy’s book and that helps let me know more about their ideals. It sucks to know that no one is going to listen to them and lobbing will always stop their actions.