Two Free Screenings of 'Coded Bias'

Occurred Across Vermont

December 2020 - March 2021

'Coded Bias’ follows MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s startling discovery that many facial recognition technologies fail more often on darker-skinned faces. Buolamwini delves into an investigation of widespread bias in artificial intelligence and the person-made and machine-learned algorithms that drive it.

Watch the Trailer

Vermont-Screening Panel Discussion

On December 12, 2020, our planning team organized a discussion to join voices from our brave little state with 'Coded Bias' Director Shalini Kantayya and Meredith Broussard, who is featured in this film. You can watch that panel discussion at the video below:

Shalini Kantayya

'Coded Bias' producer/director, TED Fellow, Fulbright Scholar, and Associate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

Meredith Broussard

'Coded Bias' cast member and Assistant Professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University

Traci Griffith

Associate Professor of Media Studies, Journalism & Digital Arts and the Pre-Law Coordinator at Saint Michael's College

Randall Harp

Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Vermont and 2020 Fulbright Canada/Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow

Shalini Kantayya

Director/Producer Shalini Kantayya’s feature documentary, Coded Bias, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. She directed an episode of the National Geographic television series Breakthrough, Executive Produced by Ron Howard, broadcast globally in 2017. Her debut feature film Catching the Sun, premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and was named a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Catching the Sun released globally on Netflix on Earth Day 2016 with Executive Producer Leonardo DiCaprio, and was nominated for the Environmental Media Association Award for Best Documentary. Additionally, Kantayya is a TED Fellow, a William J. Fulbright Scholar, and a finalist for the ABC Disney DGA Directing Program. She is an Associate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Find more information about Shalini, here.

Meredith Broussard

Meredith Broussard is a data journalist, Assistant Professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University, and the author of “Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World.” She is an affiliate faculty member at the Moore Sloan Data Science Environment at the NYU Center for Data Science, a 2019 Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow. She has also worked as a software developer at AT&T Bell Labs and the MIT Media Lab.

Find more information about Meredith, here.

Traci Griffith (Traci Griffith will also moderate the discussion)

Traci is Associate Professor of Media Studies, Journalism & Digital Arts, and the Pre-Law Coordinator at Saint Michael's College. Her areas of expertise include Media law, Ethics in the media, Intellectual Freedom and Censorship, Racial and ethnic representation in media. Utilizing her law degree and years as a professional journalist, her teaching focuses on Media Law and Ethics in the Digital Age. The course focuses on the legal and ethical boundaries and parameters of modern media with particular attention to privacy, free speech and media and technology. She also created a special topics course on Race, Gender & Ethnicity in Media. The course studies the way media creates meaning about race, gender and ethnicity, and plays an important role in shaping the way we understand them as part of our identity, our history, our social institutions, and our everyday lives. Additionally, she has designed and led comparative media study trips to South Africa, Mongolia and China.

Find more information about Traci, here.

Randall Harp

Randall Harp is Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Vermont, and is currently the 2020 Fulbright Canada/Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow/Joint Chair in Contemporary Public Policy. He does research in the philosophy of the behavioral and social sciences, social metaphysics, and data and technology ethics.

Find more information about Randall, here.

Connect Online

We'd love to see how this state-wide screening plays out in homes, organizations, and classes across the state. Please share pictures, ideas, and your 'Coded Bias' experience using the hashtag:

#codedbiasvt

'Coded Bias' in the News

Variety's 'Coded Bias' Film Review

New York Times - 'Coded Bias' Review: When the Bots are Racist

Rotten Tomatoes

Sundance Institute

'Coded Bias' on the web

Resources for Further Discussion

Please see additional resources and videos on our Learning Resources page.

Watch 'The Social Dilemma'

PG-13 (1hr 34 min)

Available through Netflix.

This documentary-drama hybrid explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations.

Listen to Filmmakers in Conversation

(1 hr)

Available here.

Filmmakers from both films discuss how 'The Social Dilemma' and 'Coded Bias' can be of service to organizations actively working at the intersection of tech reform, civil and human rights, and democracy.

TedTalk: 'The Era of Blind Faith in Big Data Must End'

(13m)

Algorithms decide who gets a loan, who gets a job interview, who gets insurance and much more -- but they don't automatically make things fair. Mathematician and data scientist Cathy O'Neil coined a term for algorithms that are secret, important and harmful: "weapons of math destruction."

The Planning Team for this Vermont Screening

A Tweet sparked a group to connect online and then begin in earnest to plan together.

Contact us at codedbiasvt@gmail.com

Financial Sponsors

We are grateful for the collaborative support to underwrite the screening of 'Coded Bias' across Vermont, the appearances of our four panelists, and related advertising.