Refreshments are available starting at 10:30 a.m. The seminar will begin at 10:45 a.m.
Abstract
In the age of big data and AI, we are witnessing an erasure of voices from underrepresented communities, a phenomenon that can be described as an “ideocide”—the systematic annihilation of the ethical frameworks and data of marginalized groups. Drawing inspiration from anthropologist Arjun Appadurai’s concept of the “Fear of Small Numbers,” Ishtiaque Ahmed argues that modern AI systems—which overwhelmingly prioritize large datasets—inadvertently silence smaller, non-dominant populations. These systems impose an ethical monoculture shaped by Western neoliberal ideologies, further marginalizing communities who are already underrepresented in data-driven systems. Based on his twelve years of ethnographic and design work with communities in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the U.S., Canada, and beyond, Ahmed will explore how the exclusion of these “small data” sets undermines the diversity of ideas and ethics, leading to biased and unjust AI systems. This talk will outline how this silence represents not just a technical gap but a profound ethical failure in AI, one that needs urgent addressing through pluriversal, community-based approaches to AI development. Ahmed will further demonstrate how collaborative, co-designed technologies with marginalized communities can resist ideocide, allowing for the inclusion of multiple ethical and cultural perspectives to create more just, inclusive, and ethical AI systems.
Speaker Biography
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed is an associate professor of computer science at the University of Toronto and the founding director of the Third Space research group. His research interest is in the intersection between human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence. Ahmed received a PhD and master’s degree from Cornell University, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. In the last fifteen years, he’s studied and developed successful computing technologies with various marginalized communities in Bangladesh, India, Canada, the U.S., Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, and Ecuador. Ahmed has published over 100 peer-reviewed research articles and has received multiple Best Paper Awards in top computer science venues including the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, the International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies and Development, and the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency. He has received numerous honors and accolades, including the International Fulbright Science and Technology Award, the Intel PhD Fellowship, the Institute of International Education Centennial Fellowship, a Schwartz Reisman fellowship, the Walter Massey Fellowship, the Connaught International Scholarship for Doctoral Students, the a Microsoft Research AI & Society fellowship, a Google’s Award for Inclusion Research, and a Meta Research Award. His research has also received generous funding support from all three branches of the Canadian Tri-Council (the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada), the U.S. NSF and National Institutes of Health, and the Bangladesh Information and Communication Technology Division. Ahmed was named a Future Leader by the Computing Research Association in 2024.