Spotlight — Coded Bias

The film Coded Bias follows MIT Media Lab researcher Joy
Buolamwini through her investigation of algorithmic
discrimination, after she accidentally discovers that facial
recognition technologies do not detect darker-skinned faces. Joy
is joined on screen by experts in the field, researchers,
activists, and involuntary victims of algorithmic injustice.
Coded Bias was released on Netflix April 5, 2021, premiered at
the Sundance Film Festival last year, and has been called “‘An
Inconvenient Truth’ for Big Tech algorithms” by Fast Company
magazine. We talk to director Shalini Kantayya about the impetus
for the film and how to tackle the threats these challenges pose
to civil rights while working towards more humane technology for
all.