Name: U of Sask. grad using AI models to detect cancer
Uploaded: 2025-10-22T18:41:21.379Z
Duration: 2 min 29 s
Description: Sakib Mostafa is a University of Saskatchewan grad who faced his fears about artificial intelligence and began a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University building AI models to detect cancer. He joined Saskatoon Morning to talk about his fascination and fears about using AI.

Sakib Mostafa is a University of Saskatchewan grad who faced his fears about artificial intelligence and began a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University building AI models to detect cancer. He joined Saskatoon Morning to talk about his fascination and fears about using AI.

Saskatchewan

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Saqib Mustafa, a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan, is developing artificial intelligence models to detect cancer, with a focus on transparency. Now a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, Mustafa aims to address concerns about the lack of clarity in how AI systems make decisions, particularly in sensitive areas like healthcare.

Mustafa's research is driven by the need for patients and doctors to trust AI-assisted diagnoses. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the data and reasoning behind AI recommendations, likening it to a doctor prescribing medicine without explanation. His work seeks to make AI decision-making processes more accessible and understandable for users.

U of Sask. grad using AI models to detect cancer

Well, would you trust AI with your cancer diagnosis? Saqib Mustafa wants to ensure that you can. He is a graduate from the University of Saskatchewan College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering, and he recently began a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. There he is building AI models to detect cancer, but he joins us now in studio to tell us more. Good morning. Good morning. What first sparked your interest in AI? So when I was growing up, I was really obsessed with sci-fi. And the first one that I read that I remember of is Jules Verne. And when I realized that the novel was so ahead of its time, it really amazed me. And eventually I realized that, OK, so we have to do something out of the box. We cannot think of like we have to think of ahead of time. So that's how I got into thinking into science. And then I saw Terminator, and it really amazed me that how that robot is making its own decisions. So that's my introduction to AI. But when I came to University of Saskatchewan, I first started working on AI. And that's how my journey began, I think, like eight years ago in AI. What are some of the dangers, though, with AI tools of today? Because you do still have a bit of fear around AI, right? Yes. So that's something that I always say, that I am fascinated by AI, and I am also scared of it. The reason being, right now, most of our life are dictated by AI. We're using AI everywhere and anywhere. But the biggest problem with AI is that we do not always know how that AI is working. It takes a lot of data. It gives you really good results. But in most cases, we have no idea how that data was used and how the result was given. Now, if you go to a doctor, and if you say that I am sick, and if the doctor gives you some medicine and doesn't tell you why that medicine was given, you would feel uneasy, right? You would not trust the doctor. So that's how I feel about AI. It's just giving us medicine. It is not telling us why it is giving us that medicine. So that has been the core of my research, to make the AI models more transparent so people can actually see how their decisions were made, or what part of the data, or what are the other factors that are contributing to us that amazing results that we are getting.

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U of Sask. grad using AI models to detect cancer

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