May 9
Milwaukee Film Milwaukee, WI
TicketsNoelle Chesley
Associate Professor and Department Chair of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Coded Bias— Confronting an automating society
Program Description
Virtual Reality. Algorithms. Robots. Artificial Intelligence. What do average citizens need to understand about the current round of technological tools shaping our social world? This brief talk will highlight both the positive potential and the possible headwinds coming our way as complex technological systems employing algorithms and artificial intelligence continue to make their way into society.
Film Synopsis
An exploration of the implications of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini's startling discovery that racial bias is written into the code of facial recognition algorithms.
Modern society sits at the intersection of two crucial questions: What does it mean when artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly governs our liberties? And what are the consequences for the people AI is biased against? When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that most facial-recognition software does not accurately identify darker-skinned faces and the faces of women, she delves into an investigation of widespread bias in algorithms. As it turns out, AI is not neutral, and women are leading the charge to ensure our civil rights are protected.
Image courtesy of Shalini Kantayya
About the Speaker
Noelle Chesley is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a public, open-access research university. Her scholarship engages questions regarding the role of technological innovation in shaping the experiences and outcomes of workers and their families. Her current research, The Job Seeker Experiences Study, examines connections between job seeking and automated hiring practices. Dr. Chesley earned her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her Master’s in Public Administration from The Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and her PhD from Cornell University. She also completed post-doctoral training at the University of Minnesota. While at Cornell she was affiliated with the Cornell Careers Institute, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation sponsored research center for the study of working families. As a scholar, educator, and speaker, Dr. Chesley is passionate about demonstrating the relevance of social research to aid understanding of the issues and problems faced by real people in their daily lives.