Islam and Artificial Intelligence Mini Conference

From reading and writing in the age of chatbots to the classical philosophy of knowledge, this Islam & AI mini conference explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way we learn, think and understand the world. We will examine the opportunities and risks AI brings, and how Islamic thought can help us benefit from it without giving up the intellectual and moral agency entrusted to us. Perfect for students, parents, educators, professionals, and anyone with an interest in Islam and technology.

Schedule:
12:00-12:15 - Welcome
12:15-13:00 - Talk 1: Iqra in the Age of AI: Protecting Reading, Writing and Critical Thinking – Dr Riasat Islam
13:00-13:15 - Q&A
13:15-14:00 - Zuhr
14:00-14:45 - Talk 2: AI & EdTech: Perspectives from Islamic Philosophy – Dr Fatima Ali
14:45-15:00 - Q&A
15:00-15:45 - Talk 3: Roundtable, chaired by Shahel Khan
15:45-16:00 - Q&A

Dr Riasat Islam is a Lecturer in Computer Science at Queen Mary University of London. His research sits where Human-Computer Interaction meets Artificial Intelligence, with a focus on user-centred AI, and he writes on AI in education, including AI-assisted marking and assessment design in the generative AI era. He co-founded the Greentech Apps Foundation, a nonprofit building Islamic educational technology used by millions of people worldwide, where he leads research and development.

Dr Fatima Ali is a researcher and lecturer with a PhD in Neuroscience from UCL. She has a multidisciplinary background: she studied Physics at UCL for her undergraduate degree and took a Masters in Bioimaging Sciences at Imperial College London before her PhD. She has been studying Islamic philosophy at various institutes, and with colleagues from the Muslim Researchers Network she published a review of Islamic approaches to AI.

Shahel Khan is an AI research engineer at the UK government's incubator for AI, building applied AI solutions within government alongside research into policy, ethics and agentic systems. He has worked on foundation model research for reasoning systems, was a founding research scientist at Codewords, and led the applied AI team at SymphonyAI. He read theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge, trained additionally in philosophy, and writes on the philosophy and ethics of AI, collaborating with the University of Oxford on papers that read the field through competing ethical frameworks.

This event is sponsored by Beacon Books
Publishing classic and contemporary books since 2012
www.beaconbooks.net