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Joy Buolamwini

Joy Buolamwini

Dr. Joy Buolamwini is the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League (AJL.org) and the author of the national bestseller “Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines.” She is also the protagonist of the Emmy-nominated documentary Coded Bias. Her landmark MIT research “Gender Shades” is ranked among the most influential AI bias studies ever published. That research compelled three tech giants to halt sales of facial recognition technologies to law enforcement, was cited by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as motivation for its ongoing testing of facial recognition algorithms for demographic bias, and sparked worldwide discourse on ethical AI implementation. Dr. Buolamwini’s research has transformed the field of AI accountability and the ways governments and institutions evaluate emerging technologies. From the Vatican to Geneva, she advises world leaders on preventing AI harm and served on the EU Global Tech Panel. Fortune has named her “the conscience of the AI revolution.”

Beyond government and policy circles, Dr. Buolamwini advises brands seeking to build more equitable AI systems. As spokesperson for Olay’s #DecodeTheBias campaign, she initiated an algorithmic audit of the brand’s Skin Advisor tool, which uncovered age and skin-tone bias, and secured Olay’s commitment to using consented data in addressing it.

Known as the “Poet of Code,” Dr. Buolamwini’s artistic practice spans four continents, illuminating AI’s societal impact through art exhibitions and poetic performance. Her doctoral dissertation conceptualized the “evocative audit” theory behind works like “AI, Ain’t I A Woman?”—a powerful spoken word poem and visual AI audit exposing how household tech platforms misclassified prominent women, including Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams, and Michelle Obama, and directly credited by Google’s former AI ethics co-lead for the company’s decision to remove gender labels from its Cloud Vision API in response. As a public intellectual, her TED talk on algorithmic bias has been viewed nearly 2 million times and translated into 22 languages.

A Rhodes Scholar and Fulbright Fellow, Dr. Buolamwini holds master’s degrees from the University of Oxford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she also earned her PhD. She was named to TIME’s inaugural 100 Most Influential People in AI and selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
Learn more: www.poetofcode.com

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  • Organization
    Algorithmic Justice League Bestselling Author UNMASKING AI | Time 100 AI
  • Profession
    Founder and President
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Related sessions
AI for Good Global Summit
9 July 2026
•
12:00 - 12:20
EST - New York
CST - Beijing
PST - Los Angeles
AWST - Perth, Australia
Reject excoding, embrace public AI

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