Ford School assistant professor Yousif Hassan is contributing to a growing international effort to explore how the African humanities "can inform and transform global conversations on technology and ethics," as part of the EthicsLab at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
Over the past two years, the Wellcome-funded Ethicslab has curated a cross-disciplinary hub of scholars, artists, and practitioners who investigate the ethical, socio-political, and philosophical dimensions of emerging health technologies, including artificial intelligence. Participants engage with the program through four key avenues: academic retreats, research residency, catalyst grants, and webinar speaking opportunities.
"By fostering critical dialogue between African scholars and other Global South thinkers on the urgent issues surrounding AI, the EthicsLab advances the goal of re-centering African knowledge and epistemologies within global AI discourse and grounding AI development in the sociotechnical realities of the continent," Hassan said.
At the heart of the EthicsLab's work is the idea of ethics as "worldmaking," an understanding that technologies do not simply influence the future, but actively participate in creating the moral, political, and social worlds we inhabit today.
"Importantly, the EthicsLab helps position African intellectual traditions not as peripheral perspectives, but as foundational to contemporary discussions on AI governance and ethical frameworks."
