KARACHI:

President Arif Alvi has stated that artificial intelligence (AI) has turn out to be the second most critical aspect in each sector of economy as it guarantees development by leaps and bounds.

Speaking at the “4th Pakistan Artificial Intelligence Summit 2023” in Islamabad on Thursday, Alvi stated nearly no company and profession could develop devoid of adopting AI, cloud computing and facts technologies (IT).

“This (AI) delivers a more quickly development path to Pakistan’s economy than the world’s quickest bullet train. If we get on it (AI train), the planet will be opened for us.”

Cyber safety and information analytics provide big possibilities to firms and men and women, he highlighted, adding that advancement towards 4G and 5G was a big improvement for speedy financial development in Pakistan.

“Cyber safety calls for 80 million specialists about the planet more than the subsequent 5 to six years. There is a substantial quantity of information readily available, but there is a lack of skilled individuals to analyse and make the very best use of it,” remarked the president.

Regardless of repeated statements from higher-ups, facts and communication technologies (ICT) authorities have mixed feelings about the government’s efforts to strengthen AI as some show self-confidence although other folks stay sceptical.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, startup investment specialist Kapeel Kumar stated that AI development in Pakistan was gaining some ground as the policy had been drafted in such a way exactly where private-sector enterprises had got considerable influence.

On the other hand, “the government’s readiness remains a challenge with zero concentrate on AI education, which puts a large query mark more than development in this region. Devoid of educating youth in the field of IT, we cannot obtain our objectives and make factors sustainable in the extended run,” he added.

The Covid-19 pandemic has underlined the urgent require for adopting digital technologies, green transition and AI-primarily based models to address public overall health management challenges that could emerge in the wake of a pandemic.

“Unfortunately, Pakistanis are slow in the race for AI supremacy,” Kumar stated, adding that regardless of its significant population and abundance of all-natural sources, the nation had lagged behind other nations in the improvement and adoption of AI technologies.

Calling it a big concern, he pointed out that Pakistan risked becoming left behind in worldwide economy if it did not make concerted efforts to stay competitive in the quickly altering planet.

“Artificial intelligence systems may possibly be correctly utilised to monitor incidents and set management requirements and processes,” commented JS International ICT analyst Waqas Ghani Kukaswadia although speaking to The Express Tribune. “They may possibly also be employed to guarantee cyber safety in order to stay clear of on the net fraud.”

Governments may possibly employ AI technologies to deal with large information to undertake investigation to uncover typical resident requirements, minimise management expense and optimise the provision of solutions, emphasised the JS analyst.

Speaking at the conference, Minister for Preparing, Improvement and Particular Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal declared that Pakistan was protected from any default-like predicament.

“We are nearly inching out of crisis. Gradually and steadily, each passing day, we are obtaining closer to the point of stability exactly where vulnerabilities will be overcome,” he stated.

“In the subsequent two to 3 years, we will take methods to stabilise Pakistan’s economy permanently.”

The minister was of the view that Pakistan could turn out to be the third greatest nation in terms of IT freelancers, adding “AI specialists will address the country’s (chronic) troubles.”

AI and the private sector would aid to obtain the preferred export levels, stated the minister. “We (the government) will make all the investment required to make infrastructure competitive.”

Ministry of IT and Telecom Member International Coordination Ajmal Anwar Awan stated that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had provided the ministry the target to improve Pakistan’s exports to $50 billion a year in the subsequent couple of years.

He stressed that digital technologies had turn out to be essential for financial development mainly because technologies could speedy forward the nation and aid multiply development in each field of economy which includes textile and other manufacturing sectors.

“We are operating with China to create a digital corridor beneath the China-Pakistan Financial Corridor (CPEC),” he remarked.

Sharing his views, P@SHA Vice Chairman Khuram Rahat stated that the adoption of IT sparked a debate that it would make individuals jobless, but contrary to that technologies had made a lot more employment possibilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2023.

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