How I'm fighting bias in algorithms | Joy Buolamwini 

I can see that lots of the people in the comments have no clue how machine learning works...

Okay let me break it down for you folks real simple-like: if a webcam finds it difficult to detect, for example, dark skintones, then the functionality of the webcam is biased towards dark-skin users, because it performs poorly due to their appearance. She's not saying this is a result of racism on the part of programmers, or that webcams are racists, its just an unfortunate by-product of the technology and she's working to correct it. Facial recognition is a powerful tool with a wide application from privacy to security to entertainment, this isn't some SJW nonsense. Jeez.

Personally , I wish my face was less detectable by surveillance cameras.

reminds me of that video explaining how Kodak film couldn't replicate brown tone people right until the mid 80s

I liked her introduction, "a poet of code", as a programmer I'm feeling flattered

Nice resume: Joy Buolamwini is a poet of code on a mission to show compassion through computation. She is a Rhodes Scholar, Fulbright Fellow, Google Anita Borg Scholar, Astronaut Scholar, A Stamps President's Scholar and Carter Center technical consultant recognized as a distinguished volunteer. She holds a master's degree in Learning and Technology from Oxford University and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

how interesting that a video on algorithmic bias has equal parts likes to dislikes.

what's the name of the facial tracking system thanks

This is so interesting! Joy Buolamwini rocks.

I appreciate the content of the video, but I wish she would have included more statistical examples. Its one thing to claim your face wasn't recognized. Its another thing to display data on many people who's faces were scanned and were or were not recognized.

The real reason some people are triggered in the comments: they hate seeing a smart, educated African American MIT student.

Human humans forget that computers are only as you are only as smart as you make them there is no secret to be unfolded this was a wonderful talk

🙄 I am always confused by people who comment on and dislike things they haven't seen. Clearly shows a bias of the viewers. Good job Joy.

1,092 ppl didn't watch the video before rating

Keen curiosity brings things to light, good and bad, good job

I agree with the content of the video about the potential bias of algorithm but I have a problem with the example of face recognition. My phone as no problem in tracking the speaker face, so I think that this is not a real problem for marketable applications not trained with outdated and small data sample

Excellent!!! Loved her! Shes awesome!

You can tell most of the people who disliked the video don't have a science background. It IS a bias if the algorithm only recognizes a certain type of face. The word bias has no negative connotation by itself, it simply means preference or "works better with". She isn't saying the algorithms are "racist".

Thank you TED for not disabling comments!

This is really great..... even 7 yrs later .... this information is very relevant, Thank you Joy !!

Good work thank you

This is such powerful talk! Let's imagine that the reason facial recognition works 'better' on light skinned people because cameras are good at picking up light, (and not biased datasets). If facial recognition technology is not working on darker skin then it's not working at all. It's not recognising faces! Facial recognition is still unreliable using high quality photos of members of congress and honestly, surveillance cameras using this tech would be low quality anyway. AI, years later, still excludes a large proportion of the population and needs to be a big topic of discussion as society increasingly relies on its decision making.

You could use this to your advantage instead of fixing it. Being anonymous these days is a gift

why does this have so many dislikes, she makes a valid point

I'd like to see the code she writes.

Brilliant. But I don't think anyone should want to have their face recognized by a software. Doesn't that seem a bit intrusive?

Is this to be an empathy test? Capillary dilation of the so-called "blush response?" Fluctuation of the pupil, involuntary dilation of the iris?

This is so informative, thank you for sharing.

Also, why not use things other than visible light to do the same thing, darker faces are darker in visible light, not under other sources.

Thanks

Hopefully when Robocop comes into fruition it will mistake me for a Tree 😊

She's great

i wonder how this can be applied to ageing faces?

why the background look like it was built out of solo cups

A few years ago I was in Frankfurt airport on transit. The restrooms have automatic soap dispensers.. it could only detect light skinned hands for some reason. I am from India. There were two people in that restroom trying every dispenser. A black person and myself .. we were telling each other that the damn things are broken. In walks a white guy and uses it. We asked him to try the other soap dispensers and they all worked for him! We laughed, shook our heads and moved on saying "someone did not design and test their product right!" . At the end of the day, design and test should always consider the spectrum of end users. Always remember this mantra when designing things with AI "You are not your user"!

Great talk, I'll leave without checking comments section now, thank you, Joy❤

Couldn't this be addressed by using a light that's outside of the visible spectrum? What about combining a high-resolution camera with infrared light?

Ok I wasn't to keen on seeing this video mainly because the title, but it's a good theme honestly.

For those who don't know how machine learning works and can't even hear her. Try to read about training sets.

i was waiting for her to say "if you cant tell, this is because i was black" BUT SHE DIDNT AND NOW I DONT KNOW WHY THEY COULDNT DETECT HER

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that every time she said "Coded Gaze", I heard it as "coded gays" and got really confused about what that had to do with coding until she showed us the Coded Gaze webpage. Still a good and eye-opening talk though.

Well, i once had to put my face on a cam and the cam didn´t recognize my face either.. She actually does something about it, so why the dislikes for this video?. I support her actions, as long as it doesnt results in consequences that leave other groups out for the sake of the main group..

In my opinion the ability to defeat AI facial recognition is an advantage.

All those who are saying that she doesn't make sense doesn't know anything about machine learning. If the training data doesn't have enough images of black people, the algorithm will have a hard time detecting them. It's not about the lighting or the camera. I am surprised by the number of dislikes on this video!

Love how her example was as she called it a cheap webcam and not a more complex one.

This was such an important TD Talk. I cant believe I just recently found out about it when diving deep into AI and using it in my apps but I am glad I didnt find out later. Its unfortunate the domain name is now for sale and no longer operated by them but I loved this

Thank you for a "Very Informative" presentation! It's wonderful that you brought this issue to the front burner! Kudos Joy! :-)

The people programing/coding the algorithms that impact us all have implicit (internal) biases that become implicit in their code.

Take back the algorithm and open up those black boxes. Thanks for the encouraging message, Joy.

that ain't no bug it's a privacy feature. don't break features.

Yes, what we need to do is *improve* facial recognition technology /s

In years to come this will be an issue. Companies will need test subjects or images of all races to make sure technology truly works for all races. What if the next super smart techie nerd is born in india and the camera only works with people from India? It can and will happen.

Great talk, Joy! It’s important that this topic is getting visibility. Great work you’re doing toward combatting these biases

very inspiring, i can see that she is very hard working person

Unless there is a wide variance in the delivery of email notices at least 17 people disliked this before saw more than they saw the first 5 minutes. That says a lot about some very foolish people. This is a great presentation! She's a wonderful presenter who is dynamic and entertaining on what is a technically and socially complex topic. It's exciting to have and example of discrimination that, while unintended or even unconscious , is very real and has very concrete results. Thank you for sharing, TED.

Not good for some computer to judge by facial features...or to judge anyone

I wish she did more research, as in, the details as to what part of the algorithms that causes them to fail with different skin colours, and how to fix those issues. because it kind of sounds like she is just complaining wanting others to fix this problem for her.. but I could be mistaken.

This content is relevant and timely. A book I read on this topic was equally pertinent. "Game Theory and the Pursuit of Algorithmic Fairness" by Jack Frostwell

I've actually studied everything to do with 3D printing and so also 3D scanning, I've learned that there are 3 things that are difficuld to scan by a 3D scanner. the first is shiny objects, the second in translucent objects and the last was black objects... "Black objects" it's true, licht gets absorbed by the color.

It seems there is also a human bias toward facial recognition software. The bias gives more credibility to it since it's a computer !

Great accomplishments, Joy: Joy Buolamwini is a poet of code on a mission to show compassion through computation. She is a Rhodes Scholar, Fulbright Fellow, Google Anita Borg Scholar, Astronaut Scholar, A Stamps President's Scholar and Carter Center technical consultant recognized as a distinguished volunteer. She holds a master's degree in Learning and Technology from Oxford University and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

More Dislikes than Likes ?? MY GOD ! This is a Real issue. My racist coolpad camera doesn't recognize my face when I select face-detection mode. It is so embarrassing !!

What happened to TED Talk...?

I agree with the premise of making services equitable in access and fair, but I think "unlocking equality" through digital technology is a vague and concerning mission. Equality of what? Between which groups/sub-groups? And who decides?

While the problem that an algorithm does not work correctly is true in this case, I don't think it's connected to bias at all. But you certainly have to point out where the problem lies within the code, so the people behind it can fix it. Focusing on that issue seems more important to me.

Nothing wrong can come from a facial analysis software...

i bet it has more to do with the camera having a hard time picking up darker skin tones... because.... cameras in general have harder times with darker colours. I dont see how you will be able to fix this without upgrading all cameras to have direct light sources or IR Depth sensors. this has nothing to do with algorithms

Well after AI learned once. It rarely try to think against it. It should identify reasons. What about training while working? If it found many faces near this spectrum then it recognize those faces. but beware not to do it for gorilla.

It turns out that if you get a cheap webcam with a cheap face recognition software, you don't get very good face recognition

It's simple math. How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?

I agree that this is a problem, but she seems to really have a shotgun approach to trying to create new or take over existing phrases / memes / acronyms ... feels to me like she's hoping one or more of them will gain traction for her own self aggrandisement ... self promotion is one thing, but it feels like this speaker took it to another level, beyond that which TED is normally known for.

she is so well spoken and likeable

Wow, people do overreact... It is very true what she said, just watch the whole video. One thing tho... When she says that we need diversity among coders, so that they can fill each other's gaps, I hope she means diversity of exeperience and of field of study, not racial/national/sexual diversity.

Thank you Joy! This world needs you, because programmers (as evidence from the comments), have no understanding of the SOCIAL IMPACT of their work. Of course there may be other solutions, but it is the SOCIAL structure of your field that matters. This would not be a TECHNICAL issue if every programmer was black, but because RACIAL MINORITIES are highly disadvantageous due to unethical practices and historical processes, (that have kept them from learning about such software relative to others dependent on race and gender), cannot be due to a "glitch" in the system. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!! Racial paradigmatic bias exist in computer science as well. Also, this is a BLACK WOMAN talking about facial analysis software which is changing the SOCIAL STRUCTURE of the field, and needed to prevent issues like this in the future. You can most definitely argue that there are other ways to fix this solutions, but you can't argue that the minority elite does not look like Joy. I swear this world needs to be more reflexive........UGH. JOY YOU ARE A QUEEN! Thank you so much for speaking up and being a voice for the voices in a very underrepresented field. (Simply look at the representation of the audience). WAKE UP YALL.

didn't like the choice of words, but i realy liked the talk. a nice surprise for such a video title :-)

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Guys this is just something she's doing with her life. It would be dumb if they didn't talk about it

UK Passport Agency, are you listening?

If the Training sets aren’t really that Diverse, any Face that Deviates too much from the Established Norm will be Harder to Detect...

Better camera and better lighting. But I do agree with her in part for some coding could use some changes but it is not about race. If Bob invents from scratch all by himself a robot to see him then this is not bias or racist. So if a technology is brand new and she invented it then just maybe the robot would just see black faces and not light skinned people. There are so many takes on this that it is crazy you can go so many ways with this. So if I create a new system to only recognize dogs then all the cat owners get in a hissy fit? No. Just build your own thing But after the technology matures and it is ready for global release then yes it should be usable for all races.

Awful lot of folks in this comments section who don't understand what the word bias means in the scientific community. Bias is a real thing in machine learning. All algorithms have inductive bias. She is not saying that algorithms are racist...

Yep the face detection on my sony camera always ignore black pple's faces and track white faces flawlessly

Cool initiative! I am sure coders would love you helping them identify their bugs and provisioning them with free data. Just make sure you remember they probably didn't do it intentionally and approach them kindly. Otherwise you will end up as crusaders fighting someone who isn't really your enemy.

When security cameras start using facial recognition this will cease to be an issue.

I would be happy if a computer could not recognize me.

"Someone else will solve this problem. "

>nonpolitical video about software >mass dislikes Tell me again how there isn't a problem with racism in this channel's audience

Nice one Joy, I'll join your fight!

wtf.. Whats with those many Dislikes ? This is genuinely good ted-talk.

Could never be related to the fact that dark colors are harder to get contrast on.

Nobodies fighting anything, no one is trying to stop you from fixing this. Why is she framing this like a civil cause?

Its ok with 247,000 views shes got something to say and they enjoy listening 😉

Problem was and always have been with humans, not with the algorithms. And guess what, it has been proved that even if we feed biased data into the algorithms they are less biased than humans. If we show algorithms that most of the people convicted to a crime belong to single race it will learn this and do this same thing. These algorithms are at best mirror of ourselves, we should do our best to show an ethical image instead of our real image if we want the algorithms to be 'fair'.

This always annoys me. Taking selfies with my mates, never get facial recognition. It's a small peeve, but it's quite annoying.

She is just seeing the problem from only one perspective. Hardwares like webcam are so important as much as these algorithms. I'm not a black person and even my webcam sometimes doesn't recognize my face cause I would have a long hipster beard. She was trying to make this bias as political and racial as possible however science doesn't care about all these labels. To avoid over fitting simply look outside the box and stop blaming others.

AMAZING!! :D

So the machines are taking over after all. 😃

Let my people code!

Everybody has their faces in a database. That is, anyone with a driver's licence or government issued ID. Have you heard of "Real ID"

Omg goodness did people even watch the whole video? People are crazy 🙄