Organiser
Bio: Dr. Ajay Shrestha is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Vancouver Island University (VIU), Canada and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Saskatchewan (USask), Canada. His research focuses on trustworthy and responsible artificial intelligence, decentralized AI, blockchain technologies, privacy, security, and the governance of emerging digital systems. His work examines how decentralized and privacy-preserving technologies can support more transparent, accountable, and user-centred digital ecosystems. He has conducted research on privacy and responsible technology use, including issues affecting young people in AI-enabled and smart-device environments, and is currently leading research on youth-centred governance of decentralized AI, with particular attention to privacy, agency, and accountability. His broader research interests include blockchain-enabled systems, decentralized computing, data governance, digital trust, and the societal implications of emerging technologies. Dr. Shrestha has contributed to international research collaborations, conferences, scholarly publications, and knowledge-mobilization activities related to artificial intelligence, blockchain, cybersecurity, privacy, and responsible technology design. He is particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches that connect technological innovation with ethical, regulatory, and human-centred considerations to support the development of secure, trustworthy, and socially responsible digital systems.
Sandhya Joshi is a Software Engineer and Research Associate at Vancouver Island University, Canada. Her research interests include decentralized AI, user experience, and responsible technology. She is currently contributing to a VIU research project on youth-centred governance of decentralized AI, with a focus on privacy, agency, and accountability. The research is funded by one of Canada’s federal Tri-Council agencies. She also has professional experience in software engineering, data quality assurance, and academic research.
Introduction
The convergence of blockchain and artificial intelligence is enabling new forms of decentralized intelligent systems in which data, computation, decision-making, and governance can be distributed across multiple participants rather than controlled by a single centralized entity. While these developments create opportunities for greater transparency, resilience, privacy, and user control, they also introduce significant challenges involving trust, security, accountability, data governance, and responsible deployment. This special session focuses on blockchain-enabled trustworthy decentralized AI, bringing together research at the intersection of blockchain technologies, decentralized artificial intelligence, privacy, security, and governance. It welcomes novel architectures, methods, frameworks, empirical studies, and applications addressing how blockchain and related decentralized technologies can contribute to trustworthy AI ecosystems. Topics of particular interest include privacy-preserving decentralized AI, blockchain-supported AI accountability and provenance, decentralized data and model governance, identity and access management, trustworthy data sharing, smart-contract-enabled AI coordination, security of decentralized intelligent systems, and mechanisms supporting transparency and auditability. The session also welcomes interdisciplinary work examining ethical, regulatory, human-centred, and societal dimensions of decentralized technologies.
Related topics for this special session (but not limited to) :
Blockchain-enabled decentralized
artificial intelligence
Trustworthy decentralized AI
systems
Blockchain and AI integration
Privacy-preserving decentralized
AI
Security of decentralized
intelligent systems
Blockchain-supported AI
accountability and auditability
AI data and model provenance
using blockchain
Decentralized data governance
Blockchain-enabled AI governance
Decentralized identity for
intelligent systems
Privacy and anonymity in
blockchain-enabled AI
Data sovereignty and
user-controlled data
Secure and trustworthy data
sharing
Smart contracts for
decentralized AI coordination
Blockchain-enabled access
control for AI systems
Transparency and explainability
in decentralized AI
Edge AI and blockchain
Distributed and decentralized
machine learning
Trust management in
decentralized AI ecosystems
Ethical and responsible
decentralized AI
Regulatory and governance
frameworks for blockchain and AI
Human-centred decentralized
technologies
Decentralized autonomous systems
and AI
Emerging blockchain applications
for trustworthy AI