From Pixels to Power: Critical Feminist Questions for the Ethics of Computer Vision

As computer and robotic applications are empowered with new visual capabilities, the promises and pitfalls of these technologies are increasingly salient. While many researchers and data scientists are rightly enthused by the innovative capacity of these technologies, others have called attention to the ways in which these technologies can reinforce intersecting systems of social, economic, and political oppressionOppression. In this chapter, I describe prominent concerns from the human side of computer vision, including algorithmic biasBias, invisible laborLabor forces, and the socially (ir)responsible application of computer vision technology in a socially inequitable world. In doing so, I draw upon descriptions of artistic resistance, emotional laborLabor, and feministFeminist care in order to flip the perspective; to understand not only how computer technologies can “perceive” aesthetics, emotion, and art, but how human expressions of these features are in an ongoing conversation with computer vision technologies. I engage intersectional and standpointStandpoint feminisms to open a discussion of power, oppressionOppression, and potential futures in computer vision.