Future at Stake: The Ummatic Urgency to Lead in AI

// Keynote

Location: FIVE-TWO-A

Time: 10:00 AM – 10:30 AM

Speaker: Dr. Waleed Kadous

Abstract:

AI systems are built through choices—what data is collected, which voices are excluded, how models are fine-tuned, and who controls the pipelines that turn them into products. When these stages are driven by interests hostile or indifferent to Muslim values, the results are predictable: training datasets that erase our histories, recommendation engines that amplify harmful narratives, surveillance tools that target our communities, and large language models that normalize worldviews shaped by corporate or geopolitical agendas. Even seemingly neutral design decisions—like labeling certain speech as “unsafe” or optimizing algorithms for profit over truth—carry moral weight that directly impacts Muslims and the global public. This session will unpack these mechanisms with clarity and minimal technicality, showing how misaligned AI damages at its root level, and why Muslim presence across the entire AI supply chain—from data to deployment—is essential if technology is to serve justice rather than entrench oppression.

Speaker Biographies:

Dr. Waleed Kadous — Dr. Waleed Kadous, PhD (UNSW), Chief Scientist at StockApp, is a leading voice in AI. Former engineering leader at Canva, Anyscale, Uber, and Google, he has also been at the forefront of Islam and AI, including leading the Ansari Project, devoted to Islamic applications of AI. Their flagship project, ansari.chat, answers more than 30,000 questions about Islam every month.