Junaid Qadir, a Pakistani scholar was awarded by Facebook as he was declared winner of Ethics in AI Research Initiative for Asia Pacific region. The initiative was taken to help and support thoughtful yet groundbreaking research in the field of maintaining Ethics in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Junaid is currently a Professor at Information Technology University (ITU) in Lahore, Punjab. His co-researcher in this project was a Assistant Professor from IBA, Karachi; Ms. Amana Raquib.
Facebook had partnered with establishments related to AI in Hong Kong for evaluating the projects of Asia Pacific region. Among all the registrations in the initiative, it included research organizations, think tanks, academic institutions and individual / co – researchers. AI has now gained the status of new transformation in the field of computer sciences but it is important to remain ethical while believing in transformation as reality. In order to support this technological agenda, Facebook has been a key organization by promoting tech industry since last two decades.
After declaration of victory, Junaid said that AI framework will be very helpful for Pakistan and the entire Muslim world. AI will facilitate to study Islamic Law and Islamic legal tradition for studying contemporary Islamic principles. The principal researcher of the project, Junaid himself has been an outstanding performer as he is PhD from University of New South Wales in Australia. Moreover, he currently serves as Chairperson of the Electrical Engineering Department of ITU. His co-investigator has completed her doctorate from University of Queensland in Australia. She is also author of the book “Islamic Ethics of Technology: An objectives (maqasid) approach”.
