Pakistani experts won the Facebook award, the world was shocked

Facebook has announced the winners of its Ethics in AI research initiative for Asia Pacific, including Pakistani scholars.

The aim of this initiative is to support formal basic research and conceptualizations in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) ethics.

The winners include people from nine different countries, one of whom is Professor Junaid Qadir of the Information Technology University of Punjab (ITU) while along with him, a co-investigator from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi. Amana Raqib is also involved.

To support AI ethics in Asia Pacific, Facebook launched a December 2019 Request for Proposals (RFP) with the University of Hong Kong’s Center for Civil Society and Governance and Hong Kong’s Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD). FP) started and shared.

These proposals were available to active and registered academic institutions, think tanks and research institutions across the Asia Pacific.

Facebook’s APAC Head of Privacy and Data Policy, Engagement Raina Yong says, “The latest developments in the field of artificial intelligence are bringing about a big change in society, but also raise a variety of ethical questions. are taking which must be thoroughly reviewed.”

He said that he believes that open collaboration with the community should inform research in the field of artificial intelligence, which is why he is keenly interested in providing support to independent academic institutions in APAC. “

Junaid Qadir, Principal Investigator (PI) of the project says, “We are very happy to receive this grant and look forward to the start of this project. Artificial intelligence has great potential to facilitate sustainable human development goals, but there are also major concerns about its misuse. Through this work, culturally aware, socially friendly artificial intelligence codes will be presented for Pakistan and the Muslim world. In this respect, the study of contemporary issues related to artificial intelligence will be benefited by working on the rich Islamic legal tradition and the objectives of Islamic law.”

Junaid Qadir has been a professor at the Information Technology University of Lahore since April 2020, while he has also been serving as the chairperson of the Electrical Engineering Department since January 2019.