Fighting Racial And Gender Bias In Algorithms #Tech #AI
Joy Buolamwini’s research helped persuade Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft to put a hold on facial recognition technology. Through her nonprofit Algorithmic Justice League, she’s now battling AI bias in other realms. While working with facial analysis software, she noticed that the software was unable to detect her face.
The people responsible for the algorithm hadn’t taught it to identify a broad range of skin tones and facial structures. Her subsequent MIT thesis exposed how facial-recognition technology performed better when analyzing photos of lighter-skinned men than of darker-skinned women.
This groundbreaking study, which crushed the myth of machine neutrality resulted in both Microsoft and IBM updating their AI. She calls this bias the “coded gaze” and argues for more accountability as AI become more embedded in our lives.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
