Dr Joy Boulamwini, founder, Algorithmic Justice League and fellow of the Accelerator Fellowship Programme will hold a screening of her acclaimed documentary Coded Bias and a Q&A session on Saturday, 12 July , 4.30pm to 7pm, at Rhodes House. She will talk about her work, in which she examines ways of creating more equitable and accountable AI systems.
Dr Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League.
Dr Buolamwini is a Fellow of our Accelerator Fellowship Programme, focusing on bias in AI Systems during her time on the programme. She is founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, stands at the vanguard of AI ethics as a pioneering MIT researcher and multidisciplinary artist. She is the author of the National Bestseller Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines and advises world leaders on preventing AI harms. Her landmark “Gender Shades” research galvanised the field of algorithmic auditing, ranking among the most influential AI bias studies ever published. This consequential research compelled three tech giants to halt sales of facial recognition technologies (FRTs) to law enforcement and sparked worldwide discourse on ethical AI implementation.
Known as the "Poet of Code," Doctor Buolamwini's artistic practice spans four continents, illuminating AI's societal impact through art exhibitions and poetic performance. Her doctoral dissertation conceptualized the "evocative audit" theory behind works like “AI, Ain’t I A Woman?”—a powerful spoken word poem and visual AI audit exposing how household tech platforms misclassify prominent women including Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams, and Michelle Obama. As a public intellectual, her TED talk on algorithmic bias has been viewed over 1.8 million times. The Emmy-nominated documentary Coded Bias, chronicling her evolution from graduate researcher to algorithmic justice advocate, was available to over 100 million Netflix viewers worldwide.
A Rhodes Scholar and Fulbright Fellow, Doctor Buolamwini received the Technological Innovation Award from the Martin Luther King Jr. Center. Fortune Magazine names her the "conscience of the AI revolution," while Time magazine placed her on their inaugural list of the 100 most influential figures in artificial intelligence. After earning her doctorate from MIT, she received honorary degrees from both Knox College and Dartmouth. In 2024, her contributions were recognised with the NAACP-Civil Digital Rights Award, presented by Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex.