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

by Joy Buolamwini

I walked to the front of the crowded room with my shield in hand. The wood-paneled lectern stood like a pedestal directing all eyes to the speaker. I began my presentation with two videos. In the first one I stare into a camera and say, “Hi, camera, can you see my face?” I pause. Nothing. “You can see my friend’s face.” The video cuts to the face of my friend Mary Maggic, a Chinese American speculative artist. Her face is quickly detected. “What about my face?” The camera returns to my face. I make an exaggerated pout on camera, drawing laughter from the audience. “I have a mask.” I put on the white mask, which is immediately detected. “Can you see my mask?” The laughter shifts to audible gasps. On the black screen, three white words linger: “The Coded Gaze.” I then presented another video. In this one I show a person walking in front of a car that is presumed to be self-driving. The car does not slow down and instead collides with the person. I used these videos to tee up the idea that computer vision technology was further infiltrating our lives and that the consequences of not being detected by a computer vision system were not just for chuckles but could in fact be grave. The AI techniques used to detect a face were similar to the techniques used to detect a body. I wanted to show that my focus on faces was only a starting point, and the implications of the work would reach beyond just the face space.