Designing AI for social justice

I am writing this piece in a great mood after a particularly eventful and progressive Lent term. As well as working on my PhD in interdisciplinary AI design, I had the privilege of co-convening the inaugural Centre for Human-Inspired Artificial Intelligence (CHIA) Early Career Conference where attendees shared insights and methodologies that push the boundaries of what is possible when humans and AI work together.

When I finished my undergraduate degree in engineering in Bangladesh, little did I think that a couple of years later I’d be in Cambridge surrounded by the brightest minds in the world who are busy shaping this emerging field of AI ethics. Working in the rapidly evolving field of AI is incredibly rewarding: we are striving to positively impact some of the greatest challenges of our time. And I will be honest, it is demanding. It requires constant attention to technological advancements, shifting ethical and regulatory standards, and responding to enormous public expectations, but the societal benefits are important and necessary.

In Autumn 2023, when I joined Trinity Hall to study for my MPhil in Ethics of AI, Data and Algorithm at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI), I was excited and inspired by the possibilities of belonging to this community. CFI was inaugurated by Professor Stephen Hawking in 2016 who said in his speech, “AI will be either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity… The research done by this Centre is crucial to the future of our civilisation and of our species.”

During my MPhil, I researched how contemporary AI ethics and practices have been excluding Global South contexts and how this could bring further harm to the already marginalised population groups in those regions. I presented the initial findings of my dissertation at Trinity Hall’s Marshall McLuhan Symposium last year, together with other members of the MCR working across a range of important and interesting topics.

Fast forward to Autumn 2024 and I started my PhD in Interdisciplinary AI Design with a more pragmatic research interest: how can we integrate non-Western knowledge systems into the design of sociotechnical interventions with generative AI?

I am exploring how local and indigenous knowledge practices of diverse Bangladeshi population groups could inform a justice-centric design of AI, specifically when those groups apply generative AI tools in their socio-technical contexts. I am a member of the Cambridge Collective Intelligence and Design (CamCID) group and supervised by Dr Ramit Debnath. This lab is a great fit for my research since I aim to capture plural values around ‘collective intelligence’ of my targeted population groups and combine them with cutting-edge computational approaches. I am also co-supervised by Professor Alan Blackwell (in the Department of Computer Science and Technology) and am a member of his Critical Design Studio. His alternative and ethnographic approaches to AI are inspirational. I plan to conduct ethnographic field research with Bangladeshi communities to understand how their perspectives and cultural contexts are reflected in their locally led and owned data practices.

My previous peer-reviewed co-authored publications examined how digital technologies affect marginalised population groups in Bangladesh and advocated for distributive justice in socio-technical design. I intend to build a similar decolonial evidence base through my PhD research showing how AI can be co-designed with vulnerable population groups to improve their lives. I am grateful to have had opportunities to receive funding from Trinity Hall and the University to support my research and postgraduate study