Shafik Quoraishee

Another dream come true this year — feeling incredibly grateful to be speaking at Game Developers Conference (GDC), the biggest game developer conference in the world, with Amra Khullar on The New York Times ’ new game, Crossplay, on March 13.

Ever since I was a kid, I remember looking at that stage as the peak of game development — a place where the craft, the tech, and the people behind the work all came together. This is the same conference where games like Sid Meier’s Civilization, The Sims, and DOOM were dissected, challenged, and pushed forward by the people who made them.

Getting the chance to stand on that stage and share our incredible team's incredible work, with 30,000+ people, feels unreal — and deeply meaningful.

schedule.gdconf.com/session/multiplayer-game-dynam…

5 days ago | [YT] | 2

Shafik Quoraishee

Today we, The New York Times, released out new multiplayer game. It's been an incredible journey, working on this project for the last year and half.

As one of the Lead Android Developers on the project, I can confidently say that this was the biggest, most challenging, and most rewarding projects of my life. From building complex tile mechanics, to helping to develop a high performing content moderation system, to crafting smooth and satisfying game animations - we literally did it all!

Hope you enjoy our Games, because this will blow your mind!

Get it now on the Google Play Store! play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nytimes.…

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 0

Shafik Quoraishee

Being given the honor to speak and attend droidcon NYC 2025 was absolutely unbelievable, especially while helping to represent The New York Times along with my fantastic colleagues. In all my years as an Android Developer, I can say that this conference reminded me the most of why it's crucial to stay engaged in the Android and mobile community, and double down. The passion and incredible enthusiasm from the speakers, attendees, and staff itself was unprecedented for a conference.

On top of that, I got the pleasure of speaking to the absolute top tier of Android Development, including Jake Wharton, Stacy Devino, Gabriel Peal, and so many more fantastic people that help to keep the Android Community afloat and welcoming for developers and seasoned vets alike. Intersecting with FlutterCon, I met some incredible people in the Flutter space as well got a much deeper appreciation for the role flutter can and played in cross platform Mobile development. I'll go into all of this in a longer post.

As to the topic I was speaking on, which involved AI image recognition and android development, the intersection of the two big interests of mine, I was nervous at first that some of the ideas might be too esoteric or too off the beaten path for this conference. But the reception was amazing and just helped to emphasize the kindness and supportive and enthusiastic nature of the mobile Android community.

Looking forward to continue to stay engaged and building more Android, on device integrations as well. On that note, I'm so glad that the Android community approaches AI with sincere and genuine interest, and with realism. The talks at conference really helped drive home some of the points that we as developers should seek to understand and embrace the future of technology with curiosity, optimism, and vigilance. Looking forward to more Droidcon s in the future.

Article for my work in Nieman Lab: www.niemanlab.org/2024/01/how-the-new-york-times-i…

My Talk Link: nyc.droidcon.com/speakers/shafik-quoraishee

New York Times Link: open.nytimes.com/experimenting-with-handwriting-re…



Video to be posted later on!

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7 months ago | [YT] | 0

Shafik Quoraishee

Along with Wyna Liu, the amazing editor of The New York Times Game Connections, I helped construct a suite of tools to aide in building out our beloved game Connections! It's played by millions every day, and I'm happy that we have processes around building and supporting our games and our editors visions!

Here is the article on the Times: open.nytimes.com/developing-an-internal-tool-for-o…

www.nytimes.com/games/connections

8 months ago | [YT] | 0

Shafik Quoraishee

Excited to be speaking at the AI Engineer's World Fair!

AI and Game Theory: A Case Study on NYT's Connections
Shafik Quoraishee / New York Times

Room: Foothill G 1&2: Design Engineering
Time: 5 Jun 2025 12:05 PM

This session will examine how human intuition and artificial intelligence interact in solving puzzles, using the popular New York Times Connections game as a case study.

It will cover how gameplay can be analyzed using AI algorithms, including machine learning techniques like clustering, semantic mapping, and natural language processing.

Attendees will learn about building AI-based puzzle solvers, methods for measuring puzzle complexity, and the effects of AI on game design and player interaction.

Level: Intermediate
Scope: Technical deep dive

8 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 5

Shafik Quoraishee

Ecstatic to have been invited to Google I/O 2025, which to me has been one of the most consequential tech events in the modern era. I know that's a competitive statement to make, but given the advancements in AI, On-Device Models, and entire radical shifts in UX paradigms through frameworks like Material 3 Expressive, it's beyond clear we are riding the exponential curve. Not to be hyperbolic. Perhaps I will eat my words and it will all be sinusoidal :shrug:

Either way, as being both an Android and ML developer, the number of integrations that AI has unlocked is staggering, and I mean that generally speaking. Not only in the Agentic coding and app development space, but in the ability to rapidly iterate on products, and able to have stable development workflows: It's astounding.

To the event itself, I've not yet been to the Shoreline Ampitheater and this was the perfect excuse. The open air nature of the event with multiple demo booths that let you try out the new Veo/Imagen Models and XR experiences. Blessed to be a part of this piece of tech history.
#googleio #io2025 #ai #android #mobile #genai

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8 months ago | [YT] | 5

Shafik Quoraishee

I had the pleasure of doing an interview on my career thus far on the Brave Technologist Podcast! I got to reflect on my past years and essentially what lead me up to working on the amazing team I'm working on now.

Truly grateful for the opportunity to have contributed to the various large scale projects that I have been involved in and experience the dynamic nature of the media industry and its many facets.

We touched on many angles, from game development to the future of technology and AI (my other favorite topic). Thanks to Luke Mulks and Sam Laliberte for the opportunity to speak to these subjects. Not to sound trite, but most definitely looking forward to what the future brings!

#android #mobile #technology

9 months ago | [YT] | 0

Shafik Quoraishee

I am honored to be accepted to speak at DroidConNYC 2025 later in June, on the experimental work I did with integrating dynamic handwriting/drawn character recognition into our Games app. The entire work presented such an exciting opportunity to investigate on-device models and develop robust image recognition processes at the model level.

I've always wanted to speak at DroidCon, one of the largest Android specific conferences in the world, and it makes me ecstatic on to do so on a topic that even in this rapidly advancing age of AI, that's not fully understood or whose applications are not yet fully 100% appreciated on a larger social scale: On Device AI. It's Doubly awesome to be able to do it on such an icon application as our Crosswords.

You can read more about the modeling process here, in my Nieman Lab Article:

lnkd.in/eNZFWyD4

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9 months ago | [YT] | 0

Shafik Quoraishee

It was an absolute pleasure to host Cade Metz, renowned Technology Reporter, at our latest meeting of The New York Times AI Community of Practice, which my group and I have the privilege of facilitating. Cade led an engaging and informative discussion focused on AI-generated images, video, and synthetic media, sharing valuable perspectives drawn from his extensive reporting and expertise in technology.

The insights Cade shared with us were truly impressive and thought-provoking. He provided a rich historical context around AI’s evolution, highlighting key milestones and transformative moments that have shaped today's technology landscape. He also addressed the societal impacts accompanying these rapid advancements, offering practical approaches on how we might thoughtfully respond and adapt to the profound changes we're seeing unfold daily.

A special thank you to Miranda Fox, whose leadership, enthusiasm, and organizational support were instrumental in facilitating this session. Miranda continues to inspire our group and helps us maintain momentum as we organize these engaging, informative gatherings.

We look forward to continuing these discussions, fostering meaningful conversations, and bringing impactful voices like Cade’s into our community. inspiration for keep this ball rolling!

Medium Link: squoraishee.medium.com/a-discussion-with-cade-metz…

#AI #machinelearning #genai h#ml

9 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 0

Shafik Quoraishee

Last year on December 12th, I had the privilege of speaking on the GDC stage of the Jacob Javitz center as part of the AI Summit in NYC!

It was an absolutely amazing event, which included everything from the setup and layout of the conference to the vast array of industry insights and connections made on so many important topics regarding the Tech Industry, the Games Industry, and the continued impact of AI on it.

Just being able to to witness and participate in this incredible new wave of the trifecta of standard, generative, and agentic AI, along with unprecedented level innovation being unlocked is truly an awe-inspiring experience. A big thank you from me goes to all the organizers and professionals who were present, as well as the other incredible speakers and panelists who help to make the event much more than memorable.

I would include interacting with the famous Boston Dynamics Robot, and several other other incredible robotics and automated platforms as part of this experience!

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9 months ago | [YT] | 0