This Film Examines the Biases in the Code That Runs Our Lives

Shalini Kantayya is the documentary filmmaker behind the recent films Catching the Sun and Coded Bias, which premiered this month online. Coded Bias follows MIT researcher Joy Buolamwini as she investigates and combats the racial disparities of facial recognition for people of color, in both impact and accuracy. As it follows Buolamwini from MIT to her testimony on Capitol Hill, the film looks at the ubiquitous, but overlooked impact of algorithms on our daily lives, from policing to housing to education and shopping. Days after the film's premiere, WIRED spoke with Kantayya about the documentary, sci-fi, and Big Tech's grasping control of our lives. WIRED: People hear phrases like machine learning, artificial intelligence, recommender systems, and it's overwhelming.