Biography:
Deborah Raji is a highly accomplished Nigerian-Canadian computer scientist and activist, known for her groundbreaking work on algorithmic bias, AI accountability, and algorithmic auditing. Her contributions have had a profound impact on the field of technology and have sparked a global conversation about the ethical implications of artificial intelligence.
Born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Raji moved to Mississauga, Ontario, at the age of four, and later settled in Ottawa, Canada, with her family. She showed an early interest in engineering and pursued her passion by studying Engineering Science at the University of Toronto, where she graduated in 2019. It was during her time at university that she founded Project Include, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing increased access to engineering education, mentorship, and resources for students in low-income and immigrant communities in the Greater Toronto Area.
Raji’s breakthrough research came while working with renowned computer scientist Joy Buolamwini at the MIT Media Lab and the Algorithmic Justice League. Together, they audited commercial facial recognition technologies from major industry players such as Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Face++, and Kairos. Their findings were troubling—they discovered significant gender and racial biases in these technologies, with darker-skinned women facing much higher levels of inaccuracies compared to white men.
Driven by a desire to rectify these deeply rooted biases, Raji and her colleagues garnered support from top AI researchers and galvanized public awareness through their campaigning efforts. As a result, their work prompted IBM and Amazon to pledge support for facial recognition regulations and temporarily halt the sale of their products to police forces for at least one year. This achievement marked an important milestone in holding technology companies accountable for the societal ramifications of their algorithms.
Raji’s contributions to the field extended beyond facial recognition biases. She gained valuable industry experience during her internship at Clarifai, a machine learning startup, where she worked on developing a computer vision model for flagging images. She also participated in a research mentorship program at Google, collaborating with their Ethical AI team to create model cards—a documentation framework aimed at providing transparency in machine learning model reporting. Additionally, Raji played a key role in establishing internal auditing practices at Google and presented her work at prestigious conferences such as the AAAI conference and the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency.
In 2019, Raji worked as a summer research fellow at The Partnership on AI, focusing on setting industry standards for machine learning transparency and benchmarking norms. Following this, she became a Tech Fellow at the AI Now Institute, where she made significant contributions to the field of algorithmic and AI auditing. Currently, Raji is a fellow at the Mozilla Foundation, dedicating her research to algorithmic auditing and evaluation.
Raji’s work has been widely recognized and celebrated globally. In 2019, she, along with Buolamwini and Timnit Gebru, received the Venture Beat AI Innovations Award in the category of AI for Good. This prestigious recognition acknowledged the transformative impact of their work in addressing bias in AI technologies. In 2020, Raji was honored with the MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35 Innovator Award, which celebrated her as one of the world’s brightest young innovators. Her contributions have also been acknowledged by Forbes.
Deborah Raji’s relentless pursuit of fairness, accountability, and transparency in artificial intelligence has profoundly influenced the field of technology. As an advocate for algorithmic justice, she continues to challenge the status quo, pushing the industry and society to reckon with the biases inherent in our technological systems. Her work stands as a testament to the power of individuals to make a lasting impact on women’s history and the pursuit of equality in the digital age.
Awards:
– 2019 Venture Beat AI Innovations Award in category AI for Good (received with Joy Buolamwini and Timnit Gebru)
– 2020 MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35 Innovator Award