Join us for MScAC Talks, a yearly speaker series where academic and industry leaders share applied research driving real-world advances, from September to April at the University of Toronto.
Abstract
Artificial intelligence systems rely on massive datasets to learn what is “true,” but the process of creating that truth is far from neutral. This talk reveals the hidden infrastructure of data annotation that underpins every supervised model: millions of human annotators, often working under precarious contracts across the Global South, who interpret ambiguous data into the labels that machines learn from. Each annotation encodes social, cultural, and linguistic assumptions that ultimately shape model behavior, bias, and performance. By examining how annotators’ decisions and working conditions determine what counts as accurate or ethical data, I argue that AI ethics must move beyond abstract principles toward an understanding of the material and geopolitical systems that produce ground truth. From labeling hate speech to detecting misinformation, these processes expose how technical pipelines reproduce global hierarchies of labor, language, and legitimacy. Reframing annotation as a core computational process allows us to build AI that is not only robust and reliable but also socially accountable and globally aware.
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 (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.
About the MSc in Applied Computing Program
Housed in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, the Master of Science in Applied Computing (MScAC) program is committed to educating the next generation of world-class innovators. The program bridges cutting-edge research with industry innovation, equipping students to translate ideas into real-world solutions. By fostering collaboration among students, faculty, alumni, and industry partners, MScAC creates a vibrant community where research excellence drives meaningful impact.
