These findings prompted her to found the Algorithmic Justice League (AJL), an organisation that combines research, advocacy, and art to “unmask AI harms” and push for fair and accountable technology. The AJL argues that algorithmic justice is essential for modern civil rights, because biased systems already shape decisions in policing, hiring, healthcare, and everyday digital life. Its work ranges from producing art that challenges established thinking, to conducting technical audits and supporting grassroots campaigns.

Buolamwini has become one of the world’s leading voices on AI accountability. She has testified before the US Congress, briefed policymakers internationally, and urged companies and governments to halt the use of harmful facial‑recognition systems. Her advocacy helped pressure IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft to pause or limit law‑enforcement use of facial recognition. Her profile rose significantly through her acclaimed documentary Coded Bias, which follows her research and the growing international movement to regulate AI.

Joy holds degrees from Georgia Tech, the University of Oxford (as a Rhodes Scholar), and the MIT Media Lab, where she completed a PhD on algorithmic audits and the coded gaze in 2022. Her 2023 book Unmasking AI expands on her mission to ensure that artificial intelligence serves humanity fairly, describing how racism, sexism, and ableism can overlap to exclude entire groups from digital systems.

Through her research, art, and policy leadership, Joy Buolamwini has shown how computing can be used as a tool to challenge inequality rather than reinforce it. Her work is at the forefront of a global movement working to ensure technology protects civil rights and serves everyone - not just the privileged few.