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COMIC: How a computer scientist fights bias in algorithms

COMIC: How a computer scientist fights bias in algorithms

This comic, illustrated by Vreni Stollberger, is inspired by TED Radio Hour’s episode Warped Reality.

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/ Vreni Stollberger for NPR

Joy Buolamwini is a computer scientist with a PhD in philosophy from MIT’s Media Lab. She uses art and research to illuminate the social implications of artificial intelligence. She founded the Algorithmic Justice League to create a world with more equitable and accountable technology.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. utm

Christina Cala is a producer for Code Switch. Before that, she was at the TED Radio Hour where she piloted two new episode formats — the curator chat and the long interview. She's also reported on a movement to preserve African American cultural sites in Birmingham and followed youth climate activists in New York City.

Before that, she spent five years producing, reporting and editing for NPR's evening news program, All Things Considered. While at All Things Considered, she reported from the Colombia-Venezuela border on the migration crisis, covered immigration from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, told the story of one man moving through the immigration system, field-produced from the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki and reported her first piece from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Her reporting on the border was part of a 2019 Edward R. Murrow award-winning package.

In her role with All Things Considered, Cala served as the show's update producer and director, participating in special breaking news coverage. She also led music coverage for the show, reporting and producing from SXSW, editing music reviews and training the next generation of music critics.

In 2018, she co-founded the MGIPOC (Marginalized Gender and Intersex People of Color) Mentorship Program at NPR. The program includes one-on-one mentorship, scholarships for conferences, monthly brown-bags and an annual speaker symposium. She and her co-founders have presented on the program at ONA, Third Coast, Werk It and more. She and her co-founders received the NPR Diversity Success employee award for their work in 2018.

Before coming to NPR, she reported internationally from Lima on the Carnegie Foundation Global Reporting Fellowship, Munich on the Eric Lund Global Reporting and Research grant, and at the Times/Sunday Times Newspaper in Cape Town.

She graduated from Northwestern University with her Bachelor's of Science and Master's of Science in Journalism.

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