Principal investigator
Morgan Klaus Scheuerman; Jed Brubaker
Funding
Microsoft; National Science Foundation (NSF)
Morgan Klaus Scheuerman has one fundamental听goal with his research: to show tech companies that听marginalized people matter.
To do so, the information science graduate听student studies, literally, how computers see听us, focusing on the facial analysis software听hidden in everything from cell phones and听computers to surveillance cameras at听airports and malls. Already, his work has听found that such platforms frequently听misidentify those who are not white,听male and cisgender (with a gender听identity that matches their birth sex).听He wants to understand why.
Where do things go wrong in the听making of such products? Can they听be improved? And should some听technologies not be made at all?
鈥淲e have labor laws and advertising听laws and housing laws against听racial and gender discrimination,听but there are no laws specific听to embedding discrimination into听algorithms,鈥� said Scheuerman, recipient听of Microsoft鈥檚 prestigious 2021 Research听Fellowship. 鈥淭he only way we discover such听discrimination is when it happens to us.鈥�
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