Invited Speakers

The ACM EAAMO'24 Invited Speakers series features experts from various fields discussing the role of algorithms and optimization in addressing equity and access challenges. These speakers will share research and practical insights on responsible algorithm design and equitable decision-making.

Ishtiaque Ahmed #

Fear of Small Data: Ideocide in AI and Data Science #

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,” I argue 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 my twelve years of ethnographic and design work with communities in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the USA, Canada, and beyond, I 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. I will further demonstrate how collaborative, co-designed technologies with marginalized communities can resist this ideocide, allowing for the inclusion of multiple ethical and cultural perspectives to create more just, inclusive, and ethical AI systems.

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 (HCI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Ahmed received his PhD and Masters from Cornell University in the USA, and his Bachelor’s and Master’s from BUET in Bangladesh. In the last fifteen years, he studied and developed successful computing technologies with various marginalized communities in Bangladesh, India, Canada, USA, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, and Ecuador. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed research articles and received multiple best paper awards in top computer science venues including CHI, CSCW, ICTD, and FaccT. Ahmed has received numerous honors and accolades, including the International Fulbright Science and Technology Fellowship, the Intel Science and Technology Fellowship, the Fulbright Centennial Fellowship, the Schwartz Reisman Fellowship, the Massey Fellowship, the Connaught Scholarship, Microsoft AI & Society Fellowship, Google Inclusion Research Award, and Facebook Faculty Research Award. His research has also received generous funding support from all three branches of Canadian tri-council research (NSERC, CIHR, SSHRC), USA’s NSF and NIH, and Bangladesh government’s ICT Ministry. Ahmed has been named the “Future Leader” by the Computing Research Association in 2024.

Alessandra Fogli #