# Waleed Kadous **Dr. M. Waleed Kadous** is an Australian-American [[Artificial Intelligence]] researcher, engineering leader, and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience building and deploying AI systems at [[Google]], [[Uber]], Anyscale, and Canva. He is also the founder of the Islamic Alliance for Safe, Ethical, and Responsible AI (IASER) and the creator of Ansari, an AI assistant for Islamic knowledge — making him a distinctive figure at the intersection of [[Big Tech]] leadership, [[AI Ethics]], and faith-based technology advocacy. ## Education Kadous earned his B.Sc. (1992–1995) and Ph.D. (1996–2002) in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. His doctoral research focused on [[Machine Learning]] for multivariate time series classification, with applications to ECG analysis and sign language recognition using data-glove inputs. His academic work has accumulated over 3,000 citations on Google Scholar across 35 publications. ## Career ### Google At [[Google]], Kadous founded the Android Location and Sensing team, responsible for the "blue dot" positioning system and the [[Machine Learning]] algorithms underlying products such as Google Fit. He launched major projects including indoor mapping for Google Maps and helped [[Google]] build its own proprietary mapping stack — work that became foundational infrastructure for the Android ecosystem. ### Uber At [[Uber]], Kadous led overall system architecture and evangelized [[Machine Learning]] adoption across the company. He led the Location, Maps, and [[Computer Vision]] teams, defined the company's AI strategy, and worked with the CTO to evolve engineering culture and drive the next generation of [[Uber]]'s architecture. ### Anyscale Kadous served as Head of Engineering and later Chief Scientist at Anyscale, the company behind Ray, the popular open-source distributed computing framework. At Anyscale he led the company's large language model (LLM) efforts, positioning Ray as key infrastructure for training and serving generative AI workloads. ### Canva Beginning in 2024, Kadous joined Canva as Principal Applied Scientist and quickly became Engineering Lead for [[Generative AI]], spearheading the company's LLM and generative AI development. Under his technical leadership, Canva launched its AI-powered design tools including the Canva Design Model — described as "the world's first foundation model built to understand the structure, hierarchy, and complexity of real-world design." ### Cluesmith Kadous also founded Cluesmith, an AI consulting firm that partners with organizations to build AI applications through consulting engagements or equity partnerships. Cluesmith has developed frameworks for AI-assisted software development and tools including Codev and Multisage. ## Faith, AI Ethics, and IASER Kadous occupies an unusual position in the AI world as a senior [[Silicon Valley]] technologist who is also a prominent advocate for faith-informed approaches to [[AI Ethics]]. He is a co-founder of the Islamic Alliance for Safe, Ethical, and Responsible AI (IASER), an organization that works to promote beneficial applications of AI and prevent harmful ones, guided by principles derived from the Quran and Sunnah. IASER's positions include opposition to [[Autonomous Weapons]] and mass surveillance, and the insistence that AI must reflect moral principles of fairness, dignity, [[Privacy]], and truthfulness. ### Ansari Kadous created Ansari (askansari.ai), an AI assistant trained on Islamic sources that uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to search through over 18,000 pages of Islamic texts including the Quran, Hadith collections, and Fiqh encyclopedias. As of 2026, Ansari has answered over 150,000 queries from users ranging from imams seeking sermon guidance to individuals with everyday faith questions. The project, which launched in 2023, embodies what Kadous calls a "proactive" philosophy — having the Muslim community shape AI technology from the outset rather than adopting it as an afterthought. Kadous also teaches AI literacy to imams and speaks widely on [[Islam]] and AI at conferences and Islamic educational institutions including Al Balagh Academy. ## KB Relevance Kadous is relevant to the KB as a case study in how [[Big Tech]] leadership experience intersects with religious and ethical advocacy around [[Artificial Intelligence]]. His work with IASER and Ansari represents a concrete example of faith communities engaging proactively with AI governance rather than simply reacting to it — a contrast to the more familiar narrative of [[AI Ethics]] as a secular, academic, or corporate concern. His career arc from [[Google]] and [[Uber]] infrastructure to faith-based AI also illustrates the diversifying landscape of voices in the [[AI Safety]] and [[AI Ethics]] conversation, which the KB tracks as part of the broader story of technology's societal impact.