86 minutes / Color
Closed Captioned
Release: 2020
Copyright: 2020
When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that many facial recognition technologies misclassify women and darker-skinned faces, she is compelled to investigate further and start the Algorithmic Justice League. It turns out that artificial intelligence, which was defined by a homogeneous group of men, is not neutral. What Buolamwini learns about widespread bias in algorithms drives her to push the U.S. government to create the first-ever legislation to counter the far-reaching dangers of bias in a technology that is steadily encroaching on our lives. Centering on the voices of women leading the charge to ensure our civil rights are protected, Coded Bias asks two key questions: what is the impact of Artificial Intelligence’s increasing role in governing our liberties? And what are the consequences for people stuck in the crosshairs due to their race, color, and gender?
"Thought-provoking. ‘Coded Bias’ serves as both a wake-up call (to invasive practices the public doesn’t yet realize are being implemented) and a call to action."
Valerie Complex Variety
"The most cleareyed of several recent documentaries about the perils of Big Tech (“The Great Hack,” “The Social Dilemma”), “Coded Bias” tackles its sprawling subject by zeroing in empathetically on the human costs."
Devika Girish NY Times
"Terrifying. Coded Bias takes you to the front lines of the digital revolution."
Josh Flanders and Sheir Flanders Chicago Reader
"‘Coded Bias’ is an eye-opening and important film that calls attention to a movement of resistance led by badass female data scientists and grassroots organizations examining an important civil liberties matter."
John Fink The Film Stage
"A fascinating study of how even the seemingly impartial world of technology is subject to embedded racism and privilege."
RogerEbert.com
"CODED BIAS isn’t just directed by and centered around a woman. The doc is dominated by women. Expert interviews tend to skew pale and male, especially in STEM docs, but CODED BIAS highlights the voices of women, and particularly women of color, in a rare and welcome change."
Women and Hollywood
"Digs into how these technologies addict us, extract data from us for profit or control, or inadvertently work against already marginalized people."
Joan E. Solsman CNET
"A chilling plunge into Orwellian reality."
The Hollywood Reporter
"A sci-fi thriller dressed up a documentary's clothes, CODED BIAS is one of the most fascinating festival films in a lineup already filled with engrossing options."
Milwaukee Film Festival
"***1/2. CODED BIAS exemplifies the power of free will, which includes our right to learn about something, and the right to shut it down."
Nick Allen RogerEbert.com
"The film is certainly realistic about the possibility of our increasing technological progress moving our society into a dystopia. But Kantayya and Buolamwini also keenly understand that if the dangers of A.I. are understood and addressed, it’s a tool that can ultimately do more good than harm."
Derek Smith Slant Magazine
"In a year where conversations about racial and criminal justice are more important than ever, Coded Bias‘ broader points about the way the tech industry projects its own gender and racial biases onto its technologies ring particularly true."
Clint Worthington The Spool
"Insightful documentary CODED BIAS doesn't just begin with face recognition: it recognizes the women facing the future."
Richard Trenholm CNET
"By centering the voices and stories of brilliant women and people of color who have exposed dangerous biases in coding, algorithms, and technologies, CODED BIAS is a much-needed antidote to cultural stories and media that reproduce -- instead of challenge -- the dominance of white male expertise in tech. Everyone needs to see this film, so we can collectively understand the fight for racial justice happening on the new frontiers of code and computer science."
Naomi Klein Journalist, Author, Filmmaker, Activist
"Coded Bias lays plain so many of the pitfalls of AI and makes the danger impossible to ignore. It is a political, feminist issue."
Beatrix Elizabeth Livesey-Stephens Artificial Womb
"Coded Bias is the intersection of social justice and computer science. It wakes us up to the need for a diverse body of programmers to protect us from the technology we have created."
Sarah Putterman Cheltenham High School
"An impressively extensive documentary on how racism and sexism creep into the unseen algorithms that control our lives, told by women activists who’re fighting the big tech companies that hold the code."
Tevya Turok Shapiro Daily Maverick
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Selected Accolades