Islamabad: Pakistan government has formed a 15-member national task force to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) for national development.
Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal, announced the formation of a National Task Force (NTF) on artificial intelligence to develop “a 10-year roadmap for accelerated adoption of AI in the business, development, governance, education, and healthcare sectors,” the planning ministry said.
The NTF will consist of AI experts and representatives from the government and private sectors. Iqbal emphasized the need for Pakistan to embrace AI and keep up with emerging technologies. “We need to adopt fast AI, which is rewriting rules of business, governance and learning in order to remain relevant in the new emerging economy,” the minister said, underscoring the critical role of AI in driving economic growth for Pakistan.
Pakistan sees AI as a key enabler of economic development and the task force’s establishment is part of the government’s commitment to harnessing the power of AI for economic transfor-mation. “By investing in AI, Pakistan hopes to unlock new opportunities for growth and devel-opment, improving the lives of its citizens,” the statement said.
While the task force has been well-received in Pakistan, some experts have raised concerns about the team’s size and the duration of the roadmap, arguing that a 15-member team may be too large to operate efficiently and effectively. Jasim Waheed, a fintech and e-commerce expert, expressed doubts about the 10-year timeframe, saying “10 years would be too long, as from a tech and de-velopment standpoint we are far behind,”. He wrote on LinkedIn that “such extra long-term plans may turn out to be futile” and too slow for a rapidly evolving tech landscape. He suggests that the country needs to keep pace with other countries moving ahead with leaps and bounds.
The formation of NTF on AI follows the news of a Pakistani judge using ChatGPT, an AI-powered text-generating chatbot, to make a legal decision. This marked the first time an AI chat-bot was used for a legal decision in Pakistan, showcasing the potential of AI to support the legal system. The move was seen as a significant milestone in the country’s AI journey and under-scored the importance of accelerating AI adoption in Pakistan.
