Allison, Kristina, Jordan, Ayishetu, Owen
Dr. Buolamwini is a computer scientist, digital activist, and AI researcher. Dr. Buolamwini’s work started as a journey of advocacy; however, it had unintentionally morphed into uncovering the potential harms of Olay’s Skin Advisor System. Dr. Buolamwini referenced the work of Safiya Nobel, who wrote The Algorithms of Oppression. This spotlighted how search engines portrayed Black girls and women of color in derogatory ways. In an attempt to lead to a more inclusive system, Dr. Buolamwini collaborated with Olay in a campaign to address bias in artificial intelligence used to analyze skin and provide personalized skincare recommendations. Dr. Buolamwini describes Olays original facial recognition technology that “was created and designed by one demographic, that is only mostly effective on that one demographic”. The AI is used to personalize skin care recommendations that rely on a database of facial images that lack diversity of skin tones. This caused the AI to perform improper skin care assessments for people with darker skin tones. The original goal was to take action and “address algorithmic bias: creating more inclusive datasets.” This was going to be done through a campaign known as “Selfies for Inclusion”. Having all this data seems like a wonderful thing, as it allows Olay to work toward minimizing bias. These data sets would enable the AI in Olay’s skin Advisory system to have a broader collection of data to deliver more accurate skin care recommendations. This sounds like an all wonderful idea but a new issue arises and it becomes a socio-technical problem. The data AI uses can be used for both good and bad. Who decides when the positives outweigh the negatives? This disagreement allows for inherent bias as we people tend to only focus on one side either negatives or positives. If we only focus on the negative we never get to see the full potential of benefits it can bring. It is important to not let our potential bias overshadow the positives. The journey of advocacy in Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy has illuminated Dr. Joy Buolamwini’s work in Unmasking AI by highlighting how discrimination is so integrated into societies and influences the way we perceive others.
At the start of the trilogy by Butler, the oankali kept mentioning how humans don’t embrace change, discriminate, and how gene-trading will change that. In Dawn, we feel that humans were made to feel terrible for not accepting everyone as they are. The oankali preached about how they would bring change to the human race and what being a human means will change. The oankali made it seem as if they were not capable of discrimination. But as we see in Imago, they showed much bias towards Jodahs and let their preconceived notions get the better of them. “Human beings fear difference,” Lilith had told him once. “Oankali crave difference. Humans persecute their different ones, yet they need them to give themselves definition and status. Oankali seeks differences and collects them. They need it to keep themselves from stagnation. You’ll probably find bath tendencies surfacing in your behavior. When you feel a conflict, try to go the Oankali way. Embrace difference” (Adulthood Rites.) He had probably been treated badly. He did not veer from the Human norm in the same way as other people in the village, and Humans were genetically inclined to be intolerant of difference. They could overcome the inclination, but it was a reality of the Human conflict that they often did not (185-186 Imago). Here again, we see the implication and outward notion that humans, in their nature, are not tolerable but fail to see their own biases. Jodah was born to Tino, Nikanj, and Lilith and showed many characteristics of a male, human oankali construct. Going through his metamorphosis, it was discovered that Jodah was not an Oankali but instead was a human Oolioo construct. It was determined that Jodah was never a male and only showed characteristics of males. The Oankali already had a fear surrounding human-born males and considered them” experimental and potentially dangerous” (Imago, 19). This fear was intensified as the Oankali were not ready for a human construct Ooloi. Human-born Ooloi was defined as a “more potentially deadly being?” The oankali didn’t like males to be born to begin with and their dislike was amplified with Jodah being a male human ooloi. In both Dr. Buolamwini’s work and the trilogy by Butler, we see similar themes of starting an idea with a positive intent but leading down to finding something negative which leaves us with a puzzling question. Does the positive intention negate the negative outcome?
Dr. Buolamwini’s goal was not only for the good of others, but it was something deeper—it was for her own personal identity and right to engage in society. An experience Dr. Buolamwini had with one of her makeup artists during the Olay campaign led to a deeper realization: “Amy, a tall Nigerian woman, was my makeup artist. When I showed her the print ad, she looked at me with tears welling in her eyes. I know this is supposed to be for little girls, but it’s for me, too. We don’t get to see ourselves celebrated like this.” Her reaction impressed on me the joy of inclusion. I didn’t need another credential to have others feel seen or to be taken seriously” (263). Dr. Buolamwini saw beyond the movement as targeting one group or community but instead impacting a larger group of communities who are also excluded from the beauty industry.
The work being done is important because it brings awareness to the disparities in access to AI technologies and addresses societal challenges brought about by facial recognition AI technologies. In today’s society, technology is advancing at a more rapid pace than ever before. In our everyday lives, we have this tool in our hands that influences our everyday lives. Through the exploration of the parallels between Imago’s journey of advocacy in Lilith’s life and Joy Buolamwini’s real-world advocacy with Olay, we see how fiction and reality reflect one another in powerful ways. Both works highlight how technological biases are not abstract; they impact how people are seen, treated, and valued. So what? This matters to our course because it reveals how Butler’s speculation is not just imagining other worlds– it’s critiquing the one we live in. It connects directly to our work on the ethics of AI and representation but also challenges the ideas of embodiment and autonomy. Who cares? We all should. These systems have been shaping the world’s hiring decisions, healthcare, surveillance, and other powerful platforms. Understanding these connections allows us to question and intervene in how power operates in both literature and technology. Ultimately, that is what our Geneseo education is for: engaging critically across disciplines, making every connection matter, and not only summarizing but interpreting work to help push boundaries. This is meaningful, impactful work.