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Unmasking AI

My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines

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 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “The conscience of the AI revolution” (Fortune) explains how we’ve arrived at an era of AI harms and oppression, and what we can do to avoid its pitfalls.

“AI is not coming, it’s here. If we answer the beautiful call inside these pages, we can decide who we are going to be and how we’re going to use technology in service of what it means to be fully human.”—Brené Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dare to Lead

A LOS ANGELES TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • Shortlisted for the Inc. Non-Obvious Book Award

To most of us, it seems like recent developments in artificial intelligence emerged out of nowhere to pose unprecedented threats to humankind. But to Dr. Joy Buolamwini, who has been at the forefront of AI research, this moment has been a long time in the making.

After tinkering with robotics as a high school student in Memphis and then developing mobile apps in Zambia as a Fulbright fellow, Buolamwini followed her lifelong passion for computer science, engineering, and art to MIT in 2015. As a graduate student at the “Future Factory,” she did groundbreaking research that exposed widespread racial and gender bias in AI services from tech giants across the world.

Unmasking AI goes beyond the headlines about existential risks produced by Big Tech. It is the remarkable story of how Buolamwini uncovered what she calls “the coded gaze”—the evidence of encoded discrimination and exclusion in tech products—and how she galvanized the movement to prevent AI harms by founding the Algorithmic Justice League. Applying an intersectional lens to both the tech industry and the research sector, she shows how racism, sexism, colorism, and ableism can overlap and render broad swaths of humanity “excoded” and therefore vulnerable in a world rapidly adopting AI tools. Computers, she reminds us, are reflections of both the aspirations and the limitations of the people who create them.

Encouraging experts and non-experts alike to join this fight, Buolamwini writes, “The rising frontier for civil rights will require algorithmic justice. AI should be for the people and by the people, not just the privileged few.” Computer Science History & Culture Machine Theory & Artificial Intelligence Politics & Government Professionals & Academics Science & Technology Technology & Society Technology Artificial Intelligence Social justice
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JB’s work was featured in one of my Fine Art lectures at university . Her book was highly recommended by our course,
The audio is great to listen to - her intelligence and clarity of thought really come through .
The honest reflections she gave as she wrestled with taking a stand show her journey was not easy and she was incredibly brave . The way she uses her scientific abilities and artistic skills so successfully to fight for what’s right and what’s human, is inspiring .

Totally inspiring .

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A spectacular perspective into the ethics of AI. The best I’ve read and one that continues to shape my understanding of this subject area. As someone who operates in and speakers regularly on the intersection of AI, Inclusion and ESG, this book is highly recommended and a must-read! Thanks Joy for this gem.

Bravo!!!

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A must read if you build AI tools or even interact with AI (so all of us!) because the default isn’t neutral and we need to do better in tech

A must read!

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The topics that are in this book a very current, the author has put this information in a way that is easy to understand and research further research. A good start if you’re trying to understand what all this AI stuff is about and some of the dangers & perhaps benefits it may pose to humanity.

Very current, indeed.

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