Abdullah Hasan Safir: Designing AI for Epistemic Justice

Supervisor: Dr Ramit Debnath

Research overview:

Central to my PhD research is the question of epistemic justice: how we could incorporate non-Western ways of knowing while designing sociotechnical interventions with Generative AI (GAI)?  Through my research, I am developing a design framework that aims to foreground marginalised voices, support diverse ways of knowing, and integrate reflexive knowledge practices into sociotechnical design conversations in AI. Once developed, it should offer a critical paradigm, methodology and set of recommendations for practitioners and researchers seeking to design GAI-based interventions that are equitable, inclusive, and epistemically plural – particularly applicable in Global South contexts.

Biography:

Abdullah Hasan Safir is an AI ethics and critical design researcher interested in developing responsible, inclusive AI systems that respond to the Majority World/ Global South contexts. He is currently working towards his PhD in Interdisciplinary (AI) Design at the University of Cambridge. He is a member of Cambridge Collective Intelligence and Design (CamCID) Group (led by Dr Ramit Debnath) and Critical Design Studio, Computer Lab (led by Professor Alan Blackwell). Safir also serves as an early career community member at the Centre for Human Inspired AI (CHIA) and contribute to an AI@Cam project around ethically rooted AI for public value.  Safir’s PhD research is generously funded by Gates Cambridge Trust.