The character arc of Joy Buolamwini
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born 23 January 1990 in Edmonton, Canada, to Ghanaian parents, an academic and an artist. Between then and now sit a computer science degree at Georgia Tech in 2012, a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, a moment at MIT when face detection software would not find her until she wore a white mask, an organisation founded in 2016, the Gender Shades study in 2018, and testimony to the United States Congress in 2019. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Joy Buolamwini?
It would not see her face, so she made it a measurement.
She was born in Edmonton in 1990 to Ghanaian parents, her father an academic and her mother an artist, and grew up in the United States. She took a computer science degree at Georgia Tech in 2012 as a Stamps President's Scholar, went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and then to the MIT Media Lab. That is about as good a technical education as exists, which matters, because of what happened next and how easily it could have been dismissed.
She was building an art project at MIT, a mirror that would recognise a face and respond to it, and the face detection would not find hers. It found her when she held a white mask in front of it. Most people in that position conclude that the software is imperfect and work around it. She treated it as a measurable claim about a commercial product, and went to find out how widespread it was.
She founded the Algorithmic Justice League in 2016 to press the case through research, art and advocacy. In 2018 she and Timnit Gebru published Gender Shades, which tested commercial facial analysis systems and found error rates for darker skinned women as high as thirty four point seven per cent, against under one per cent for lighter skinned men. That is not a bug report, it is a number the companies had to answer, and several changed their systems. She testified to Congress in 2019, appeared in the documentary Coded Bias, took her MIT doctorate in 2022, published Unmasking AI in 2023, and presented that book to the Pope at a Vatican conference in November 2025. Her line is worth reading because the whole of it comes out of refusing to treat one inconvenience as her own problem.
The moments
Joy Buolamwini's timeline.
The 2010s
Computer science at Georgia Tech
Milestone, and it changed her direction. A first degree in computing, which is the reason the later claim could not be waved away.
A Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford
Milestone. One of the most selective scholarships there is, and then the MIT Media Lab after it.
It could not see her
Setback, and it changed everything. She held a white mask up to the camera and the software found a face. That is the whole origin of the work.
Work around it, or measure it
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: test the products and publish, taken, or work around the software. She founded the Algorithmic Justice League in 2016 and published Gender Shades in 2018, after which several companies changed their systems and she gave evidence to Congress.
The Algorithmic Justice League
Milestone, and it changed everything. An organisation rather than a complaint, built to make the case in a form institutions have to answer.
A master's at MIT
Milestone. The degree, taken alongside the work that was already making her difficult for the industry.
Gender Shades
Milestone, and it changed everything. The number that ended the argument. Several companies changed their systems after it was published.
She testified to Congress
Milestone, and it changed everything. From a graduate art project to the committee room, in about four years.
The 2020s
Coded Bias on Netflix
Milestone. The argument reaching people who would never read the paper.
A doctorate from MIT
Milestone. The doctorate finished after the work that made her name, rather than before it.
Unmasking AI
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The whole account in her own words, from the mirror project onwards.
A civil rights award
Milestone. Recognised as a civil rights figure rather than only as a computer scientist.
A book for the Pope
Milestone, and it changed everything. The argument carried into a room that had been thinking about moral questions for a very long time.
The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is in systems used by police forces and employers: they are audited now, and they were not before a graduate student held up a white mask and asked why.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
Hers turned a small humiliation into a measurement, and the industry had to answer it. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Joy Buolamwini: frequently asked questions
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Sources
- Joy Buolamwini, English Wikipedia biography.
- Buolamwini and Gebru, Gender Shades: Intersectional Accuracy Disparities in Commercial Gender Classification, 2018.
- Joy Buolamwini, Unmasking AI, 2023.
- Coded Bias, directed by Shalini Kantayya, 2020.