On May 15, Wanda M. Holland Greene (Head of The Hamlin School) and Lorri Hamilton Durbin (Head of Town School), partnered with filmmaker Robin Hauser for a special screening and discussion of the film bias.
bias challenges us to confront our hidden biases and understand what we risk when we follow our gut. Through exposing her own biases, award-winning documentary filmmaker Robin Hauser (CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap, Running for Jim) highlights the nature of implicit bias, the grip it holds on our social and professional lives, and what it will take to induce change.
The toxic effects of bias make headlines every day: sexual harassment, racial profiling, the pay gap. As humans, we are biased. Yet few of us are willing to admit it. We confidently make snap judgments, but we are shockingly unaware of the impact our assumptions have on those around us. The documentary feature bias follows filmmaker Robin Hauser on a journey to uncover her hidden biases and explore how unconscious bias defines relationships, workplaces, our justice system, and technology. bias contemplates the most pressing question: can we de-bias our brains?
After the screening Ms. Hauser and Linda Tong (a VP with AppDynamics) answered questions from the audience about the film and artificial intelligence.
Some of the topics covered in the film and discussion were:
-How we often make automatic associations connecting men to careers and women to raising a family
-How the platform NextDoor had to address concerns about users posting racially biased content
-How it is very difficult to de-bias the mind
-How female representation in orchestras significantly increased when blind auditions were introduced
-Because of bias, men are more likely to be perceived as both likable and competent, whereas with women it is either one or the other
-Virtual reality can now create simulations where people can embody a different race from their own as a way to explore life from another person’s perspective
-Artificial intelligence has been used to determine sentencing for criminals and to screen job applicants
-When artificial intelligence is fed biased information, it forms data patterns that perpetuate bias
-There is currently no government oversight over who inputs data into artificial intelligence
-To overcome bias we need to slow down snap judgments and surround ourselves with a diverse group of people
To learn more about the film, please visit: https://www.biasfilm.com/