Cutting Through the AI Hype

Dear AJL Agent of Change,

Last month, we celebrated National Poetry Month in the United States. AJL would like to lift up the significance of literary creativity. The late prolific Audre Lorde once said, "Vision is not a luxury any more than poems are luxuries. Poetry is not a luxury, it is an actual vital force necessary in our lives. Necessary to help conceive of a future."

At AJL we honor the visionary voices who leverage their creative talents to push for racial equity and justice in all its forms.

In honor of the voices consistently drowned out of the AI debate, we would like to lift up one of our timely poems, Voicing Erasure.

Filling in the Gaps

AJL is excited to announce our recent paper, Change from the Outside: Towards Credible Third-Party Audits of AI Systems. Our paper was released as part of Mila and UNESCO’s larger report, Missing Links in AI Governance. The report considers the significant impact Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) has continued to have on societies, and existing gaps in AI governance. Eighteen selected submissions are included in the report from a global open call for proposals launched in 2021. The conversation encompasses perspectives from civil society, innovators and academics who leverage their expertise to expand the discussion around AI. It is the authors’ hope that policymakers and civil society members will use the report to strengthen the dialogue and encourage development of human-centered, responsible and ethical AI, moving innovation forward in accordance with human rights.

Download the Paper

Gender Shades' Ongoing Impact

Thank you all again for celebrating the 5th Anniversary of Gender Shades with us on March 2nd. We were able to celebrate Robert Williams as our first ever Gender Shades Justice Awardee. We honored Robert not only for taking risks by voicing the algorithmic injustice he faced, but for actively working to prevent others from future harm.

Since our anniversary celebration, we launched the Gender Shades commemorative website, where you can walk through the journey of our groundbreaking research. Be sure to check out the site for yourself.

VISIT NEW SITE

It's Time to Leave ID.Me for Good

Last year, the IRS promised to “transition away from using a third-party service for facial recognition” after facing serious pressure from civil rights organizations, privacy advocates, and individuals blocked from receiving benefits raised issues about the trustworthiness of ID.me. The lack of an alternative flies in the face of government promises to rein in harmful companies, particularly tech companies.

AJL has taken seriously the stories we have been witnessing from communities who have experienced harm through current methods of identity verification. To move the needle forward, we recently joined the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), along with individual researchers in offering comments in response to National Institute for Standards and Technology’s (NIST) latest draft of the Digital Identity Guidelines. Read more here.

We recognize that the administration is making moves. The Executive Order on Racial Equity, the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, are all steps in the right direction. Now is the time to back up those words with actions.

Read more about AJL’s efforts in Dr. Buolamwini’s open letter and join the campaign to end the use of ID.me for government services.

If you or someone you know has experienced harm while using ID.me for access to government services, tell us here.

REPORT HARM

AJL Honors

Congratulations to Artist-in-Chief and AJL Founder, Dr. Buolamwini who will be honored with the Morals & Machines Prize by Ada on May 25, 2023 in Munich, Germany. You can register to attend the celebration here.

We would also like to congratulate our Director of Policy and Advocacy Tawana Petty, who was recently honored by the Center for AI and Digital Policy with the Civil Society AI Policy Leader Award.

AJL in the Media

There is a lot of AI Hype happening right now, so it can be easy to get wrapped up in it. AJL would like to share three media pieces that focus on existing AI harms. Dr. Buolamwini was recently featured in a segment on Artificial Intelligence on John Oliver’s show Last Week Tonight. Be sure to check out the show.

AJL’s perspectives on unconsented data used in generative AI systems were also featured in a recent Harvard Business Review roundtable article: What Does the Tech Industry Value?  

Also, tune in to our Director of Policy and Advocacy’s recent interview on NPR’s 1A, hosted by Jenn White. Tawana was joined by Wired’s senior writer Khari Johnson and others. You can listen here.

Joint Statement from Government Agencies 

Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EOC), the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (Division) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) joined forces to issue a joint statement restating their powers. Their Joint Statement On Enforcement Efforts Against Discrimination And Bias In Automated Systems is a strong stance outlining each agencies’ authority to regulate the use of automated systems. AJL is encouraged by this announcement and looks forward to seeing further efforts in the future.

READ STATEMENT

Excoded Story: No Face Found 

A Black Dutch student named Robin Pocornie has taken on the struggle against facial recognition use with her university’s exam supervision software. Pocornie made her claim with the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, a court focused on discrimination claims. In a story eerily similar to Dr. Buolamwini’s Gender Shades origin story, Pocornie discovered that the software would not detect her face. In fact it kept reporting to her that there was “no face found.” She was able to eventually get the software to detect her face, only after shining a lamp “uncomfortably close to her face.”

Read more about Robin’s journey for algorithmic justice here.

And join AJL on our journey towards algorithmic justice by sharing your own stories with our team.  

You can also submit your thoughts and concerns on the abuse of data to power AI systems and automated worker surveillance to several government agencies.  

The CFPB is receiving public comments regarding data brokers until June 13th. 

You can submit your comment through the Stop Data Broker Abuse campaign or the government website here. 

The White House has issued a statement seeking comments from the public on how automated tools are being used to surveil, monitor, and manage Workers. Public comments are due on June 15th and can be submitted here, or by emailing directly at [email protected].

This is the time to let your voice be heard!

SHARE YOUR STORY

ABOUT THE ALGORITHMIC JUSTICE LEAGUE (AJL)

The Algorithmic Justice League is an organization that combines art and advocacy to illuminate the social implications and harms of artificial intelligence (AI). We are reducing AI harms in society and increasing the accountability in the use of AI systems.

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