Our weekly SRI Seminar Series welcomes Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Toronto, the director of the Third Space research group, a faculty fellow at the Schwartz Reisman Institute, and a senior fellow at Massey College. He co-organizes the monthly Critical Computing Seminar at U of T, and co-steers U of T's SDG initiative.

Ishtiaque’s research focuses on design challenges around strengthening the voices of marginalized communities around the world. He has conducted ethnography and built technologies with underprivileged communities in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, China, Canada, and the US. In this talk, Ishtiaque will explore the implications for AI ethics for the Global South, how access to intelligent computing is limited by the imposition of colonial perspectives, and ways to decolonize AI that focus on local values, participation, and pluralism.

Talk title:
“Whose intelligence? Whose ethics?: Ethical pluralism and decolonizing AI”

Abstract:
The benefits of computing are often confined within the populations with certain privileges. Those benefits rarely reach billions of underprivileged lives around the world fighting extreme poverty, illiteracy, gender discrimination, forced migration, and various other exploitations and marginalization. The services that are available through computing often fail to address their needs and constraints. My research with various marginalized communities in the Indian subcontinent over the last twelve years has revealed how this failure is often associated with some of the core issues of computing, including ethics. In this talk, I will particularly focus on the ethics in AI, and associated practices in the Global South. My talk will explore how access to intelligent computing becomes limited by the imposition of colonial perspectives, how autonomy over an intelligent platform is curtailed by discriminatory standards, and how AI technologies often silence local voices by using western scientific rationalities. In this talk, I will further demonstrate how my research explores possible ways to decolonize AI by strengthening the voice of marginalized communities and focusing on local values, participation, and pluralism.

About Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Toronto, and the director of the Third Space research group. He is also a graduate faculty member of the School of Environment, a faculty fellow at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, and a senior fellow at Massey College. He co-organizes the monthly Critical Computing Seminar at U of T, and co-steers U of T's SDG initiative.

Ishtiaque’s research focuses on the design challenges around strengthening the voices of marginalized communities around the world. He has conducted ethnography and built technologies with many underprivileged communities in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, China, Canada, and the US. Ishtiaque received his PhD and Masters from Cornell University, and his Bachelor from BUET in Bangladesh. He is a recipient of the International Fulbright Science and Technology Fellowship, Fulbright Centennial Fellowship, and Schwartz Reisman Institute Fellowship, among others. His research has been funded by all three branches of Canadian tri-council research (NSERC, CIHR, SSHRC), as well as NSF, NIH, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Intel, Samsung, the World Bank, UNICEF, and UNDP, among others.

About the SRI Seminar Series
The SRI Seminar Series brings together the Schwartz Reisman community and beyond for a robust exchange of ideas that advance scholarship at the intersection of technology and society. Seminars are led by a leading or emerging scholar and feature extensive discussion.

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