Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines

by Joy Buolamwini

In the land of these giants, I had to navigate carefully. Funding for AI research at leading universities was often sponsored by these companies. It was not lost on me that the Stata Center at MIT, which housed the Computer Science Artificial Intelligence Lab, had a Gates wing named after the founder of Microsoft. Some companies, like Google, IBM, and Microsoft, provided fellowships that would pay for or significantly subsidize the cost of completing graduate programs in computer science. After finishing a computer science degree, top students found competitive and compelling job offers from the tech giants, who were ensured a steady supply of promising research talent. Between financing specific areas of research, providing the means for earning expensive graduate degrees, and offering lucrative tech sector jobs, the shadow of the tech giants touched all aspects of the AI research ecosystem. Getting on the bad side of one of these companies could have serious career consequences. When I was a graduate student, however, I was not particularly interested in working for one of them. I had my tuition fully covered and received a stipend. The funding structure of the Media Lab, and particularly my affiliation with the Center for Civic Media, gave me more freedom than most graduate students researching AI systems would have had. My advisor, Ethan, was also not beholden to any of these tech companies to directly fund our research. Instead, Ethan sought support from organizations...