Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed | Whose intelligence? Whose ethics?: Ethical pluralism and decolonizing AI

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 a