As higher education continues to reckon with the emergence of AI, the Keough School of Global Affairs recently hired Mohammad Rifat as an assistant professor of tech ethics and global affairs. He is a specialist in AI ethics, human-computer interaction and critical social science.
Rifat earned his doctorate in computer science from the University of Toronto this year. While he primarily works in the Keough School he also holds positions within the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He also works significantly with the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and Common Good.
“In Keough, we prioritize values like human development and human dignity, but I also get technical expertise from computer science,” Rifat said, reflecting on his experience within both fields.
Rifat’s research is primarily concerned with the question of how society can make AI more inclusive of marginalized communities. Rifat explained how AI and computer systems are designed based on the information accessible to them — which he says is often from the most modernized cultures. Faith-based and traditional communities in the Global South might not be represented in data sets AI systems are trained on, he explained, and therefore people in these communities may not be represented in the content these AI systems produce.
“AI is modernistic, and it uses the methods and methodologies and techniques and approaches in a way that reflect the institutions and techniques in modern culture, but not traditional cultures, not indigenous or faith-based cultures. The faith-based communities are not strong consumers of modernism,” Rifat said.
Rifat says these communities are being inadvertently marginalized and that it’s his goal to bring their history and life stories out of the shadows.
Professor Rifat also spoke on the responsibility scientists should have in a world that has become increasingly AI-dominated.
“As a scientist myself, our responsibility is to steer AI towards the direction where the business interests don’t dictate how AI should serve the community. The deeper questions are human dignity, welfare and safety,” he said.
