Talat Zubair - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Talat Zubair
Discover Artificial Intelligence
The twenty-first century technological advances driven by exponential rise of artificial intellig... more The twenty-first century technological advances driven by exponential rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology have ushered in a new era that offers many of us hitherto unimagined luxuries and facilities. However, under the guise of this progressive discourse, particularly in the backdrop of current neo-liberal late-capitalist postmodern world, AI development also has prompted an increasingly uncertain ethical tomorrow. This paper aims to probe the question of ethics by exploring the true ramifications of AI and interrogating its various ethical dimensions. It questions the essential goodness that is attributed to unstinted AI development before elucidating the ethical repercussions of AI advancements and the aptness of the current market logics and business models that govern the tech-industry. The paper next positions a holistic Islamic virtue-based AI ethics framework grounded in the context of Islamic objectives (maqāṣid) as an alternative ethical system for AI governance...
ICR Journal, 2019
The growing trend of sharing and acquiring news through social media platforms and the World Wide... more The growing trend of sharing and acquiring news through social media platforms and the World Wide Web has impacted individuals as well as societies, spreading misinformation and disinformation. This trend—along with rapid developments in the field of machine learning, particularly with the emergence of techniques such as deep learning that can be used to generate data—has grave political, social, ethical, security, and privacy implications for society. This paper discusses the technologies that have led to the rise of problems such as fake news articles, filter bubbles, social media bots, and deep-fake videos, and their implications, while providing insights from the Islamic ethical tradition that can aid in mitigating them. We view these technologies and artifacts through the Islamic lens, concluding that they violate the commandment of spreading truth and countering falsehood. We present a set of guidelines, with reference to Qur‘anic and Prophetic teachings and the practices of t...
This paper discusses the design features deliberately used in social media technologies to cause ... more This paper discusses the design features deliberately used in social media technologies to cause behavioral addiction, while outlining how this addiction leads to altering, reshaping and redefining of basic human values such as contemplation, well-being, mindfulness and connectedness that bring about social, psychological, cultural and ethical changes in human existence. The paper sheds light on how the altering of the human value system goes against the values and principles of Islamic law by citing Qur’ānic verses, prophetic traditions and teachings of Islamic scholars. Currently, there are no frameworks, laws and/or strategies that view social media addiction from a metaphysical perspective and in terms of human worldview and existence. Hence, as a solution, our paper introduces an ethical framework for designing social media technologies using the objectives of Islamic law that discourage a social media design with indefinite ends and encourage a design methodology with well-def...
The growing trend of sharing and acquiring news through social media platforms and the World Wide... more The growing trend of sharing and acquiring news through social media platforms and the World Wide Web has impacted individuals as well as societies, spreading misinformation and disinformation. This trend-along with rapid developments in the field of machine learning, particularly with the emergence of techniques such as deep learning that can be used to generate data-has grave political, social, ethical, security, and privacy implications for society. This paper discusses the technologies that have led to the rise of problems such as fake news articles, filter bubbles, social media bots, and deep-fake videos, and their implications, while providing insights from the Islamic ethical tradition that can aid in mitigating them. We view these technologies and artifacts through the Islamic lens, concluding that they violate the commandment of spreading truth and countering falsehood. We present a set of guidelines, with reference to Qur'anic and Prophetic teachings and the practices of the early Muslim scholars, on countering deception, putting forward ideas on developing these technologies while keeping Islamic ethics in perspective.
Discover Artificial Intelligence
The twenty-first century technological advances driven by exponential rise of artificial intellig... more The twenty-first century technological advances driven by exponential rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology have ushered in a new era that offers many of us hitherto unimagined luxuries and facilities. However, under the guise of this progressive discourse, particularly in the backdrop of current neo-liberal late-capitalist postmodern world, AI development also has prompted an increasingly uncertain ethical tomorrow. This paper aims to probe the question of ethics by exploring the true ramifications of AI and interrogating its various ethical dimensions. It questions the essential goodness that is attributed to unstinted AI development before elucidating the ethical repercussions of AI advancements and the aptness of the current market logics and business models that govern the tech-industry. The paper next positions a holistic Islamic virtue-based AI ethics framework grounded in the context of Islamic objectives (maqāṣid) as an alternative ethical system for AI governance...
ICR Journal, 2019
The growing trend of sharing and acquiring news through social media platforms and the World Wide... more The growing trend of sharing and acquiring news through social media platforms and the World Wide Web has impacted individuals as well as societies, spreading misinformation and disinformation. This trend—along with rapid developments in the field of machine learning, particularly with the emergence of techniques such as deep learning that can be used to generate data—has grave political, social, ethical, security, and privacy implications for society. This paper discusses the technologies that have led to the rise of problems such as fake news articles, filter bubbles, social media bots, and deep-fake videos, and their implications, while providing insights from the Islamic ethical tradition that can aid in mitigating them. We view these technologies and artifacts through the Islamic lens, concluding that they violate the commandment of spreading truth and countering falsehood. We present a set of guidelines, with reference to Qur‘anic and Prophetic teachings and the practices of t...
This paper discusses the design features deliberately used in social media technologies to cause ... more This paper discusses the design features deliberately used in social media technologies to cause behavioral addiction, while outlining how this addiction leads to altering, reshaping and redefining of basic human values such as contemplation, well-being, mindfulness and connectedness that bring about social, psychological, cultural and ethical changes in human existence. The paper sheds light on how the altering of the human value system goes against the values and principles of Islamic law by citing Qur’ānic verses, prophetic traditions and teachings of Islamic scholars. Currently, there are no frameworks, laws and/or strategies that view social media addiction from a metaphysical perspective and in terms of human worldview and existence. Hence, as a solution, our paper introduces an ethical framework for designing social media technologies using the objectives of Islamic law that discourage a social media design with indefinite ends and encourage a design methodology with well-def...
The growing trend of sharing and acquiring news through social media platforms and the World Wide... more The growing trend of sharing and acquiring news through social media platforms and the World Wide Web has impacted individuals as well as societies, spreading misinformation and disinformation. This trend-along with rapid developments in the field of machine learning, particularly with the emergence of techniques such as deep learning that can be used to generate data-has grave political, social, ethical, security, and privacy implications for society. This paper discusses the technologies that have led to the rise of problems such as fake news articles, filter bubbles, social media bots, and deep-fake videos, and their implications, while providing insights from the Islamic ethical tradition that can aid in mitigating them. We view these technologies and artifacts through the Islamic lens, concluding that they violate the commandment of spreading truth and countering falsehood. We present a set of guidelines, with reference to Qur'anic and Prophetic teachings and the practices of the early Muslim scholars, on countering deception, putting forward ideas on developing these technologies while keeping Islamic ethics in perspective.