Coded Bias Documentary: What did I learn? What were my takeaways? What questions remain?
The documentary I was given the opportunity to watch is called Coded Bias. This American Documentary, directed by Shalini Kantayya, follows a science student named Joy Buolamwini. Her goal is to prove gender and racial bias through facial recognition programs. The film focuses on Joy’s discovery, which portrays how these recognition programs do not see dark-skinned faces accurately. The underlying message explores how machine learning algorithms have the potential to reinforce existing racial, gender, and class disparities in society. The realization is discovered how human bias has led to biases in code. Technology holds significant power over our people and our society. When racism comes into play, there are underlying issues that need to be recognized and solved. In Coded Bias, viewers are introduced to Joy Buolamwini herself and her discovery of technology as a “means of transcending the world’s problems”. It wasn’t until a facial analysis system made her realize there are human failings in what we build, create, and hardware. The film depicts an analysis system that fails to register a colored engineer’s face until she puts on a white mask. This documentary is a powerful visual representation of how technology reinforces the biases and preconceptions of those who create it.
To be honest, this entire film was new to me. I have watched a fair amount of documentaries in my lifetime, but they have always been centered around crime or famous individuals and their stories. Coded Bias was very educational, insightful, and eye-opening. At first, I thought the film had a slower start and was going to be something I pulled myself through to watch till the end, but it got better and more intriguing as the storyline advanced and as time went on. Artificial Intelligence was addressed and brought to attention throughout the entirety of the documentary, which was interesting as we just dove into that topic in our course. I learned how it will only continue to become more knowledgeable and urbane each year. Unethical decisions, algorithms, and the invasion of people’s privacy were all dangers addressed throughout the film. As a growing technological society, we are not making any improvements.
My biggest takeaway after watching Coded Bias was the realization of how racial bias can play a factor in many different aspects of life. Before watching this documentary I was not as aware of these biases being found in our technology, let alone facial recognition. This is interesting that nobody seemed to think that the system was flawed or missing an enormous amount of data. After watching I began to think about other technological features and systems that could relate to the bias studied.
I found a lot of aspects of the documentary to be very interesting and compelling. One that caught my attention significantly was the removal of key fobs in the Atlantic Plaza Towers. Instead, they are utilizing facial recognition to access and live in the building, rather than traditional or electronic key fobs. I could not believe this, as I have lived in a few apartments myself and could not imagine having to scan my face in order to get up to my room. This is a huge invasion of privacy created for the building and the residents. I understand that the building needs to create a safe space for living and non-resident access should be protected, but this is not the answer. Artificial Intelligence professionals need to focus on addressing the bias in this development. Individuals not only need to fight for a smarter, and safer, approach, but for their privacy. As human beings, we should act independently of the algorithms that might be keeping an eye on us.
To go off of that, another thing I found to be very fascinating and captivating was the cameras that release the identification and criminal record history of individuals in the United Kingdom. This was very eye-opening and made me realize how much people’s privacy is invaded without their control. What gave me more shock, and honestly chills, is that 98% of the information released and matched is incorrect. This facial recognition software targets black men disproportionately, accusing them of crimes they did not commit. The UK is ultimately making every citizen a suspect, which is wrong and unjust in many ways.
These technological advancements and machines are not creating a new society, but simply reproducing the racism, sexist, and classist prejudices that characterize the “old world”. In the world of Coded Bias, technology does not save us, rather it is something we should protect ourselves from.
The biggest, and toughest, question that came about to me after watching Coded Bias was … Will there ever will be a time when facial recognition is completely publicized and broadcasted? When will the public understand that they are being heavily monitored in some cases without them knowing? I know these are difficult questions to answer, but I truly believe that without public knowledge governments will start to abuse technology for mass surveillance.
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