Sabriya is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at UC Berkeley, where she works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction.
Her research examines how people interpret, evaluate, and challenge algorithmic systems, particularly in contexts where technical definitions of fairness, trust, and reliability diverge from lived experience, domain expertise, and cultural values. Her recent work explores AI-mediated religious guidance among Muslim communities in the United States, finding that while people often recognize the limitations of AI in principle, they nonetheless place considerable trust in AI-generated religious advice and frequently overlook subtle errors that expert scholars readily identify. These findings raise broader questions about how AI is reshaping authority, expertise, and knowledge transmission in domains where mistakes carry ethical, cultural, and spiritual consequences. As a Berkman Klein fellow, Sabriya is interested in exploring the implications of AI serving in advisory roles for wisdom and guidance. More broadly, she seeks to understand how AI is transforming relationships between people and traditional institutions of expertise and how longstanding epistemic traditions, such as classical Islamic scholarship, can help inform the design and alignment of AI systems for sensitive, high-stakes contexts.