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Who the Computer Sees - Race, gender and AI
Guest Speaker: Dr. Carla Fehr from the University of Waterloo.
Carla Fehr holds the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo and leads the University of Waterloo’s Gender and Social Justice Program. She holds a BSc from the University of Saskatchewan and a PhD from Duke University. Dr. Fehr is a member of the Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute and the Consortium for Engendering Success in STEM. She is a co-founder and co-editor of Feminist Philosophy Quarterly. Dr. Fehr’s research, which focuses on values in science and the role of diversity in developing excellent scientific and technological research, has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Dr. Fehr founded Championing Women in STEM, an enterprise that provides leadership and career coaching for women in traditionally male-dominated fields.
Topic: Who the computer sees: Race, Gender, and AI
Description: Facial recognition systems can do a lot more than open your smartphone. They can sort faces into many categories, including emotional state, age, race, and sex. Without their consent, most North Americans are included in searchable government face recognition databases. Facial recognition systems are being built into our everyday lives and an increasingly wide range of social institutions. There is a well documented case study called Gender Shades, in which scholar, activist, and public figure Joy Buolamwini identifies a now-famous failure of facial recognition systems to ‘see’ and accurately classify Black women’s faces. Gender Shades provides a valuable case to explore the benefits and limitations of research and policy about the significance of diversity in science and technology.
Recommended Resources:
Joy Buolamwini - TED Talk - How I'm Fighting Bias in Algorithms
Safiya Noble - Video - Algorithms of Oppression
Os Keyes - website - ironholds.org
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