How Artificial Intelligence Becomes Racist

Tech is often idealized, if not outright fetishized, as a great leveling force in society. It is assumed that the algorithms at the foundation of the digital sphere are impartial and purely objective. In truth, though, every program will in some way reflect the prejudices of the humans who write them. The new documentary Coded Bias explores how racism is written into the structures of contemporary life. Director Shalini Kantayya follows MIT researcher Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, who uncovered how facial scanning systems have difficulty recognizing nonmale and especially nonwhite faces.