Joy Buolamwini is a computer scientist and digital activist who founded the Algorithmic Justice League, a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying and mitigating bias in artificial intelligence. Her research on facial recognition technology revealed significant accuracy disparities across demographic groups, prompting widespread industry and policy changes. Buolamwini is also the author of the children's book Unmasking AI and has been recognized as a leading voice in the movement for accountable AI.
Born in 1989 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to Ghanaian parents, Buolamwini grew up in Mississippi, United States. She earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a master's degree in learning, design, and technology from Stanford University, and a doctorate from the MIT Media Lab. Her doctoral work, supervised by Daphne Koller and others, focused on algorithmic bias in facial analysis systems.
Gender Shades Project
Buolamwini's landmark study, "Gender Shades," conducted with Timnit Gebru, evaluated three commercial facial analysis systems from Microsoft, IBM, and Face++. The study found that all three systems had higher error rates for darker-skinned women, with error rates up to 34.7% for that group compared to 0.8% for lighter-skinned men. The findings were published in 2018 and received widespread media coverage, leading to public commitments from the companies to improve their algorithms. The study also introduced the Fitzpatrick skin type scale as a metric for evaluating bias in computer vision.
Algorithmic Justice League
In 2016, Buolamwini founded the Algorithmic Justice League (AJL) to address the social implications of AI. The organization conducts research, advocacy, and public education on issues such as facial recognition, predictive policing, and algorithmic hiring. AJL has launched initiatives like the Safe Face Pledge, which calls on companies to refrain from selling facial recognition technology to law enforcement until safeguards are in place. The league also collaborates with artists and researchers to raise awareness through exhibitions and media projects, including the documentary Coded Bias, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020.
Advocacy and Policy Impact
Buolamwini has testified before the U.S. Congress on the dangers of biased AI, and her work has influenced policy discussions on algorithmic accountability. In 2019, she co-authored a report with the ACLU and other organizations urging a moratorium on government use of facial recognition. Her advocacy contributed to decisions by Amazon and Microsoft to temporarily halt sales of facial recognition technology to police in 2020. Buolamwini has also spoken at the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, emphasizing the need for inclusive AI development.
Recognition and Awards
Buolamwini has received numerous honors, including being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2018 and the Time 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2023. She was awarded the MIT Media Lab's Disobedience Award in 2020, and in 2022 she received the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leader designation. Her book Unmasking AI, published in 2023, was a finalist for the National Book Award in the nonfiction category. Buolamwini's research has been cited in over 10,000 academic papers, and she has delivered keynote addresses at major conferences including NeurIPS and ICML.
Current Work
As of 2025, Buolamwini continues to lead the Algorithmic Justice League and serves on the advisory boards of several AI ethics organizations. She is a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Human-Centered AI Institute and teaches courses on algorithmic justice. Her ongoing projects include developing tools for auditing AI systems and creating educational resources for underrepresented communities in technology. Buolamwini's work has been instrumental in shifting the AI industry toward more rigorous testing for bias and fairness.