Joy Buolamwini

Joy Buolamwini is a researcher and poet who, while a graduate student at MIT Media Lab, discovered that facial recognition software failed to detect her face until she wore a white mask. She coined the term "the coded gaze" to describe how AI systems can encode and amplify existing social biases. Her 2018 thesis work, developed with Timnit Gebru into the "Gender Shades" study, produced the first systematic empirical evidence of commercial facial recognition bias at scale.

Buolamwini founded the Algorithmic Justice League to raise awareness of AI harms and advocate for accountability. Her testimony before the US Senate, European Parliament, and UN has directly influenced regulatory discussions on biometric surveillance. She was listed on Time's list of 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2023.

Her 2023 book "Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines" addresses both the technical origins of bias and the structural reasons why AI companies failed to find it before she did. Her argument — that who builds AI determines what it sees, and that a more diverse technical workforce is a prerequisite for AI that works for everyone — has become central to AI governance advocacy.