Wahdat Mustafa, Momina Rehman
The prodigious discoveries in the field of Information Technology (IT) introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have made everyone astonished. AI involves the development of computers involving human intelligence as visual perception, speech recognition, decision making and translation between languages. ML is a branch of AI which focuses on the use of data and algorithms to imitate the way that humans learn, gradually improving its accuracy. Both AI and ML have revolutionized the global village in various aspects and the instant is known as THE FOURTH REVOLUTION: the era of Internet and Technology.
The past 10 years have brought us countless life-changing innovations. The disruptive nature of technology continues to transform our world. Nick Bostrom said, “Machine Learning is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make.”
A look at how AI is becoming omnipresent in our lives
Pakistan’s Place in AI and Computing: Klaus Schwab in his book ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution’ states that previous industrial revolutions liberated man from animal power, made mass production possible and brought digital capabilities to billions of people, but the fourth is fundamentally different. It is characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be humans. The fourth revolution has dominated all over the world with all the Superpowers being dependent on it. The economic footprint of this emerging revolution is enormous. During the emergence of AI and ML in the world, Pakistan was behind the times; and during that era world progressed extensively in IT. With the passage of time, as technology started to become more and more common; with the exposure of the needs of the world through media specifically social media, the youth of Pakistan realized the importance of technology and its fruitful impacts. The technologists, software engineers, computer experts, computer scientists, and programmers in Pakistan spread the word of importance of innovation in the under-developing countries like Pakistan which also created awareness among people of Pakistan. From the past few years, Pakistan is progressing well in the field of IT.
The Global Innovation Index (GII) ranks world economies according to their innovation capabilities. The following table shows the ranking of Pakistan over the past three years. The statistical confidence interval for the ranking of Pakistan in the GII 2021 is between ranks 90 and 101.
Rankings for Pakistan (2019-2021)
Year GII Innovation Inputs Innovation Outputs
2021 99 117 77
2020 107 118 88
2019 105 113 89
In 2021, Pakistan ranked 117th in innovation inputs, higher than 2020 but lower than 2019. As for innovation outputs, Pakistan ranked 77th. This position is higher than both 2020 and 2019.
The Emergence of Innovation in Pakistan: Comparing with the world and developed countries, Pakistan still lags behind in innovation and technology due to the restricted cultural aspects of the country. The narrow thinking of the society of Pakistan has limited the success to certain professions which does not encourage the youth to explore other fields or professions. However over the past few years, the advancement in technology has made the youngsters determined to explore the world of IT. Pakistan is slowly, but surely making its entry into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Alibaba- the Chinese tech giant has bought Pakistan’s largest e-retailer Daraz, which signifies that the e-commerce industry of Pakistan is booming. Moreover, Pakistan is home to world’s largest Amazon seller groups: “e-commerce by Enablers’’ with over 1.2 million members, “Extreme Commerce by Sunny Ali” has more than 1.1 million members, and “e-commerce Success Pakistan” has nearly 200,000. These sellers will contribute to the $23 billion in Pakistan exports. If they succeed, like early merchants from China did, local industry will develop even more to get the next businesses onto the marketplace. Pakistan is the 3rd largest seller on Amazon after United States and China.
Dr. Saif Umar is a Pakistani computer scientist, innovator and a tech tycoon He worked hard in developing innovative Artificial Intelligence models for data collection. He is determined to improve the technology and innovation in Pakistan. While addressing to Margalla Dialogue 2022, he said: “The role of Artificial Intelligence has become strategic. World leaders have acknowledged that whoever will conquer this area will conquer the world”. Pakistan is a country of young people. Average age of Pakistanis is 22 years whereas average age in USA is 38 years. With over 90% of households having cell phones and over 80 million using internet, there is a lot of potential for technology proliferation. Pakistan has a strong talent pool and a growing population of educated youth. There is an incredible engineering hub with a growing IT industry. There are 600,000 IT professionals, with over 25000 fresh graduates added to the workforce annually. Pakistan has around 17,000 software companies providing services to over 120 countries across the globe, bringing in $3 billion in IT export revenue. Due to the lack of employment opportunities, government and political instability, lack of facilities, poverty, inflation and many other reasons the young professionals desperately want to leave the country. There is growing anger and frustration in the youth of country.
AI Projects in Pakistan:
The work of Pakistan’s first high-standard artificial intelligence laboratory under CPEC at National University of Science and Technology (NUST) is being completed while the equipment installation is almost 100 percent finished. Government of Pakistan is also allocating billions of rupees in different AI and Technology projects. Federal Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Syed Amin-ul-Haque recently launched Pakistan’s largest IT Park project in Karachi to make the city a gateway for innovative future. Pakistan is also progressing fast in Freelance services over Fiverr and LinkedIn. The government has also planned to launch 5G technology in Pakistan by March 2023 which is going to be very beneficial for the IT industry. The Koshish Foundation Research Lab has shown to raise the bar and alter agricultural sector of Pakistan by using AI and ML. FAST, NUST, COMSATS, ITU, PUCIT, LUMS are recognized to be the best universities in providing technological education in Pakistan. These universities are solving fundamental AI problems by scientific research and knowledge. The National Centre of Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) is a technological initiative established by the government of Pakistan in 2018; aimed to become a leading hub of innovation and scientific research. It is encouraging to look at the tech companies and research labs working for AI and technology. They are producing world-class AI products and are keen in solving the AI problems.
Although Pakistan is progressing extensively in the fields of AI and ML, there is still a long way to go for competing with the advanced world. Technological breakthroughs are required in the fields of agriculture and industries as they are mainly concluding the economy of the country. Moreover healthcare sector also needs to be revolutionized with technology. Government should focus on the demands of the challenging world and adopt policies for the innovative and developed future of Pakistan.
