I am Professor of Economics and Founding Director of the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) and its Middle East and North Africa Observatory on Responsible Artificial Intelligence at the American University in Cairo’s Onsi Sawiris School of Business.
My area of research, teaching and advocacy is the economics of knowledge, technology and development, with focus on responsible data, Artificial Intelligence and inclusion; the future of work, and the platform economy; gencer and innovation in Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). My authored works include “Artificial Intelligence and Inequality in the Middle East” in the Oxford Handbook of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (2020) and the “Sate of Open Data in the Middle East and North Africa” in The State of Open Data, Histories and Horizons (2019).
I am a returning a Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Affiliate Faculty at Harvard Law School’s CopyrightX course and an Affiliated Fellow of Yale Law School’s Information Society Project. I am also Associate Member at the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Law, Technology and Society and member of Global Academic Network of the Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP). I lead the North Africa hub of the Open African Innovation Research Partnership (Open AIR), the MENA Chapter of the Global Index on Responsible Artificial Intelligence and the Platform Work MENA (PW-MENA) Research Group. I founded the Open Data for Development Node for the Middle East and North Africa, led the MENA Hub for Feminist AI Research (f<A+I>r) network and was head of Egypt’s team within the Fairwork action research initiative, led by the Oxford Internet Institute.
I have a record of membership in several other international committees and organizations. Examples include the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils, , the Paris Peace Forum Digital Rights in Society Working Group on Algorithmic Governance, the Scientific Advisory Committee of Feminist AI Research (f<a+i>r) network, the Open for Good Alliance, Inclusive AI commons. and the Data Governance Working Group of the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI). I also has a record of policy impact in Egypt in the area of open source technologies, regulation of ride sharing and advocacy for the right to information. I am member of the Technical Secretariat of Egypt’s National Council for Artificial Intelligence and is a major contributor to Egypt’s AI Strategy 2019. I also served as the Knowledge Economy Expert for Egypt’s Vision 2030 Development Strategy.
I served as visiting Professor at Columbia University, Yale Law School and the University of Toronto, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. At AUC, I served as the Chair of the Department of Economics and the School of Business Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research.
