# Ansari Ansari is an open-source [[Artificial Intelligence]] assistant designed to help Muslims practice their faith more effectively and to help non-Muslims understand [[Islam]]. Built by Waleed Kadous — a [[Silicon Valley]] technologist with senior engineering roles at [[Google]], [[Uber]], Anyscale, and currently Canva — Ansari uses [[Generative AI]] and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to answer faith-related questions grounded in primary Islamic sources. The name "Ansari" means "helper" in Arabic. ## How It Works Ansari searches through over 18,000 pages of Islamic source material using RAG, including the Quran, major Hadith collections (Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, and others), Fiqh encyclopedias, and the Encyclopedia of Tafseer bil Mathoor. When a user asks a question, the system retrieves relevant passages from these sources and uses a [[Large Language Model]] to synthesize an answer with citations. As of version 3.0, Ansari runs on Claude 3.7 Sonnet from [[Anthropic]], which Kadous selected over GPT-4.0 from [[OpenAI]] for its superior citation accuracy and reference handling. Key features include multi-lingual support, morphological analysis of Arabic text, contextual religious guidance, and educational content generation. The platform is available on the web at ansari.chat, via [[WhatsApp]], and through mobile apps on both Android and iOS. The backend and frontend code are fully open-source on [[GitHub]]. ## Creator: Waleed Kadous Kadous holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of New South Wales. His career spans several major tech companies: At [[Google]], he founded the Android Location and Sensing team, contributing to Google Maps' "blue dot" feature and developing [[Machine Learning]] algorithms for Google Fit. He also worked at Google X on moonshot projects. At [[Uber]], he led system architecture and teams focused on ML, location services, and safety — including AI-powered vehicle accident detection via smartphone sensors. He later served as Chief Scientist at Anyscale, working on distributed computing and ML. As of 2024, he is Engineering Lead for [[Generative AI]] at Canva. Kadous is also a founder of IASER — the Islamic Alliance for Safe, Ethical, and Responsible AI — an organization that advocates for beneficial AI applications and opposes [[Autonomous Weapons]] and mass surveillance, grounding its positions in Quranic and Sunnah principles. ## Usage and Impact Ansari has answered over 150,000 queries from users. Use cases include imams seeking help drafting sermons on short notice, individuals with dietary questions (e.g., whether they can eat shrimp from a plate that also has pork), and people seeking guidance through difficult life situations. ## KB Relevance: AI, Bias, and Religion Ansari sits at the intersection of several threads tracked in this knowledge base: **Western bias in AI.** Mainstream LLMs reflect the cultural assumptions of their Western builders. A notable example: ChatGPT was telling Muslims they needed to wash their knees before prayer — which is not part of the Islamic wudu cleansing practice. This is a specific instance of the broader [[Algorithmic Bias]] problem, where training data and design assumptions encode particular cultural norms as defaults. Ansari's approach — grounding responses in primary Islamic sources via RAG rather than relying on the model's training data alone — is one technical response to this problem. **Algorithmic religious authority.** Academic research on Islamic chatbots has documented significant performance variability, including misattribution of Quranic verses and Hadith, oversimplification of complex jurisprudential questions, and inconsistent responses. The question of when and whether computational systems can generate legitimate religious guidance — what researchers call "algorithmic religious authority" — raises fundamental questions about the relationship between [[AI Ethics]], [[Responsible AI]], and established religious scholarship. **Human connection vs. automation.** Kadous himself has expressed concern that users are turning to Ansari for emotional and spiritual guidance that would be better directed at an imam or community member. As he told TIME: people are asking "What does Islam say about the rough patch that I'm going through?" — questions that touch the limits of what [[Artificial Intelligence]] should be expected to handle. **Contrast with [[Christian Nationalism]].** While this KB primarily tracks the intersection of religion and politics in the American right-wing context, Ansari offers a useful counterpoint: a technology project that engages religious tradition through scholarship and transparency rather than political power. The open-source approach and explicit ethical framework (via IASER) contrast with the ways AI is being deployed in other religious-political contexts. **[[AI Safety]] and [[Islamophobia]].** IASER's positions on [[Autonomous Weapons]], mass surveillance, and [[Privacy]] connect Ansari's ecosystem to broader debates about how AI systems affect Muslim communities — particularly in the context of surveillance technologies deployed against Muslim populations globally.