Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines Audiobook by Joy Buolamwini

The Aspire Mirror Project

• 💡 The speaker was developing an Aspire mirror designed to apply a video filter effect directly onto a mirror reflection.
• 🎯 A key technical challenge was to enable the digital image to follow face movement for a more immersive illusion.
• 🛠️ This project required setting up a webcam and integrating face tracking software so the mirror could interact with the user.

Encountering Technical Challenges

• 🧩 The speaker utilized pre-existing code in the form of software libraries for the face tracking component, rather than building everything from scratch.
• ⚠️ After integrating an open-source face tracking library, the system unexpectedly failed to detect her face, even when she looked directly into the camera.

Unmasking Algorithmic Bias

• 🔍 To test the system's capabilities, she drew a simple face on her hand, which the software successfully detected.
• 🎭 She then wore a white costume mask, and the software immediately detected this