What kind of advancements have we seen in artificial intelligence in the Middle East and North Africa in the contemporary period, how has this technology been used for good and where has it maintained structures of inequality?
In this talk by Nagla Rizk, Professor of Economics at the American University in Cairo, the potential opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence will be explored, with an emphasis on the future of work and questions of knowledge production in relation to development.
This webinar will also be the launch of the latest season of the LSE Middle East Centre's podcast series Instant Coffee. This latest season will explore technology and its developments in the region, with the first episode being released on Tuesday 30 January.
Meet the speaker
Nagla Rizk is Professor of Economics and Founding Director of the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) at the American University in Cairo’s School of Business. Nagla’s area of research, teaching and advocacy is the economics of knowledge, technology and development, with focus on governance of responsible data and Artificial Intelligence, fair work in the platform economy, innovation, gender and inclusion in Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Her authored works include “Artificial Intelligence and Inequality in the Middle East” in the Oxford Handbook of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (2020) and the “State of Open Data in the Middle East and North Africa” in The State of Open Data, Histories and Horizons (2019).
Nagla leads the MENA Hub for Feminist AI Research (f<a+i>r) network, the North Africa hub of the Open African Innovation Research Partnership (Open AIR), and the Egypt team within the Fairwork project, led by the Oxford Internet Institute.
Polly Withers is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre, where she leads the project “Neoliberal Visions: Gendering Consumer Culture and its Resistances in the Levant”. Polly’s interdisciplinary work questions and explores how gender, sexuality, race, and class intersect in popular culture and commercial media in the global south.
Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEMiddleEast
From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly recommend checking back on this listing on the day of the event if you plan to attend.