Louisiana Public Broadcasting presents a virtual preview screening of Coded Bias on Monday, March 15 at 6PM. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Shalini Kantayya, Coded Bias, from Independent Lens PBS, follows MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini, along with data scientists, mathematicians and watchdog groups from different parts of the world, as they fight to expose the discrimination within the facial recognition algorithms now prevalent across all spheres of daily life. Buolamwini’s startling discovery that the algorithm for facial recognition technology could not detect dark-skinned faces or women with accuracy led to her realization that the very machines learning algorithms intended to avoid prejudice are only as unbiased as the humans and historical data programming them.
The film explores an increasingly data-driven, automated world, where the question of how to protect individuals’ civil liberties in the face of artificial intelligence looms larger by the day. Praised as “cleareyed” by The New York Times and “a chilling plunge into Orwellian reality” by The Hollywood Reporter, “Coded Bias illustrates the profound ways in which algorithms have come to shape people’s lives, with very little oversight from public and elected officials,” said Kantayya. “It’s my hope that the film pushes audiences toward a greater awareness about how these disruptive technologies impact issues of equality and equity and that it in turn encourages more people to speak up and hold the companies behind them accountable.”
Following LPB’s virtual preview screening of Coded Bias, hear from expert panelists who discuss the film and the implications of facial recognition technology. The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Robyn Merrick, Vice President of External Affairs for the Southern University System. Panelists for the virtual event include Angela A. Allen-Bell, Associate Professor, B. K. Agnihotri Endowed Professor, Southern University Law Center; Kelly G. Carmena, Criminal Clinic Supervising Attorney, Southern University Law Center; and Alanah Odoms, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana.
For details and to register for this free screening event, go to www.lpb.org/codedbias. The documentary will make its broadcast premier on LPB on March 22nd at 7pm.