Pakistan’s AI Readiness

 

Pakistan’s AI Readiness

In my beloved homeland all innovations and inventions enter like a tornado but very soon lose the lustre because of the weak response to infrastructure as well as preparedness. The same has happened in case of the advent of Artificial Intelligence, rather we must say that it has taken us like a storm and it’s not going to lose its grip so soon. Pakistani students in almost every field are highly and deeply engaged with the use of artificial intelligence. The same is the case with the uses of artificial intelligence in many other areas like media communication, film development, and writing of scripts. A large number of our youth is now engaged also in earning money through this artificial technology and so far they are successful in it. In other words, AI has created opportunities for all and sundry whoever possesses a good computer and an Internet connection can earn money and increase and learn multiple skills in order to excel in this field. Thanks to government policies that now are facilitating many institutions as well as working spaces to increase our contribution in the uses of artificial technology. But as it has happened over the years in a number of other fields of our national life, We are not fully prepared to handle and to avail the benefit from the tools of artificial intelligence, especially in the absence of some ethical restrictions and a comprehensive policies, we are drifting into the negative areas of this artificial intelligence technology instead of the positive ones. Although the government has established computer cities and computer enclaves in mega cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to enhance the working capacity, level, skills, and understanding, of artificial technology. The same is the case with the famous universities of Pakistan like NUST, FAST, NUML, and EUM, which are contributing significantly in providing skills to our youth and training experts so that we can get the best possible benefit out of that. But majority of universities lack in well manned and equipped infra structure for this. We have ignored number of challenges which are yet to come or are coming on our way. We are not prepared for that and nor have we addressed to these and therefore very soon, like the .com bubble, the bubble of AI may burst out if we do not take heed of that. For example, on the one hand we are claiming that we are going to become a digital nation and we are going to capture the highest possible market related to artificial intelligence, on the other hand, the internet speed is hindered in the name of data management and issues related to structural damages. Similarly, the concrete benefits of AI technology can be harnessed only with the establishment of powerful computer infrastructure which is lacking in my beloved homeland. The laboratories where the youth is to be taught and trained, lack even in modern and state of the art infrastructure. In such a situation the dream of becoming a digital nation and grabbing the maximum market share in the field is not possible.

At the socio-political level, we also are experiencing the digital divide because the good internet speed and the modern and powerful Internet machines are only available to the city-dwellers while the rural classes have no or little access to these necessities, sometimes because of high cost and sometime because of lack of interest of the related institutions or individuals. This is exactly opposite to the technology claims that it is an equal opportunity for all. Moreover, the government seems reluctant in the matter of investment in this area and is unwilling to turn to paperless AI economy and is so divesting the current youth and coming generation from the utilisation of the artificial intelligence tools.  

In an age of Artificial Intelligence, not providing comprehensive policy guidelines and a robust infrastructure would be an injustice not only to our current youth but also to the upcoming exertions. The world is going to be changed so rapidly and Pakistan needs to cope with its speed. The foremost thing that our sociopolitical set up must engage in is to provide a comprehensive ethical guideline to our people about the use of this technology in an attempt the safeguard the privacy and the data. Copying and manipulation of data usage for other than professional and research purposes must be watched and protected diligently. Again, government must allocate extraordinary sources for this field of technology which may meet at least minimum benchmarks in the world. A good increase in funding would provide more job and market opportunities to the people involved.

Artificial intelligence can be helpful in reducing, if not eliminating, corruption and other malpractices. It can change the life of the common citizens for the better. Government and the relevant institutions must look for the opportunities for our trained youth in the multiple parts of the world, so that everyone may secure a fair deal in the matter of Artificial Intelligence.

From oligarchy to Technocracy

Among the champions of democracy, the United States of America believes that democracy is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, as it was defined by the American president Abraham Lincoln in the latter half of 19 century. But when we look around the elections 2024 in the USA recently, we can see that the elections have been dominated by the wealthy and technically very strong people like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, who are technically expert and owners of billions of dollars and are seen attempting to establish technocracy. This calls for an attempt to understand what democracy has become overtime in the 21st-century that instead of the significance of peoples’ vote to elect the ruler it is the money and the power that makes the people elected or selected for the government and this is happening in almost around the world. During my childhood, I used to listen in my village that the villagers would vote for that person or party who will be voted by the elder of the village. So, the contestants of elections would meet and visit the village elder instead of the people. It meant that a successful connection with the elder of the village or the tribe can ensure the victory of the contestant. Here again the common man and the word of the common man was not significant. 

It was expected in the 21st-century that the information and awareness spread far and wide would make it possible that the people may be able to elect their representatives on their own responsibility and without taking care of the dictates of the elder or the bigger people of the town. But the 21st-century awareness has only changed the mode of this type of election engineering and has not resulted in the change because of the vote of the people. If one just looks at the globe and its politics on the globe one can see that the biggest democracies in America and Europe are also getting their leaders when a particular type of people support them who have a big sway on the assets and the working of different technical corporations. These are the modern as well as very wealthy technical oligarchs who hold the hugest possible amount of money in their bank accounts and therefore can manipulate the vote psychology of the people and make their desired candidate win the election. These are the movers and shakers of the working of democracies almost in every wealthy country. This syndrome of technical corporations has entered the democratic lives of the people in the less developed countries as well. If you look around the elections in 2018 and then in 2024, it is quite evident that the election contesting candidates could win their seats if they were supported by the wealthy and the rich donations of these people in Pakistan. These people have a sway on the funding and can change the psychology of voting people at least if not by buying the vote with money. There have been some examples of giving gifts to the people, offering food to the people and promising for the jobs and hence attempting to buy the favors of the people to win the election. This amounts to buying the boat with power of money instead of convincing the people for their votes with their performance. It means the more money and the power one has; the more are the chances to become the premiere of the country. Moreover, if we tend to look around us in Pakistan, we can see that most of our rulers or the elected representatives come from elite families and almost continue to do so throughout their life and after them their next generation begins to gear up for becoming the ruler of the country in the same fashion even after the passage of decades of years. 

Although Pakistan does not have the rich technical corporations and their experts the way American and European democracies have but in Pakistan also there are the rich and the powerful people who can or have the capacity to manipulate and exploit the vote of the people. In American and European democracies, the mode seems to be the winning of the election based on the corporate supports. These corporations are, with respect to their money technical expertise and their public holdings, so strong that they can play a major role in the winning of the elections by their favorite candidate, probably to win back there spent money along with the profit from the policies of the elected government. This may be right, or this may be wrong but the fashion of the democracies in 21st-century is going to be government of the corporates, for the cooperates and by the cooperates. 

Representing the Marginalized

 

            In his world-famous critique of ‘Orientalism’ Edward Said declared that the marginalized (colonized) cannot represent himself and must be represented by the Colonizer which is never fair because it is the representation from the point of view of the master, not that of the marginalized. The same was critiqued by Ashcroft in his book ‘Empire Writes Back’, when he said that the marginalized has adopted number of ways and means to use English language to reflect his resistance to the master and to attempt to represent his culture and identity as far as possible. But the same issue was repeated with emphasis by Spivak that a subaltern cannot speak and even if he does, no one listens to him. Although these instances are from the postcolonial literary scene, but the analogy holds good about the sociopolitical situations all around the globe, especially about the democracies in the third world.

 

            Democracy is defined as the government by the people and for the people and is meant to represent the common man with the focus to increase the middle class and reduce the lower and upper class. But in the third world democracies, only the middle class is decreasing, while the upper and lower classes are increasing. The expansion of the lower class means that the people in such democracies are not able exercise their right to develop and progress as they are poorly represented because the representatives elected are mostly from the upper class and so, like the colonial master, they cannot represent their toiling masses in the true sense of the world. So, that is why, government after government comes and goes, election after election takes place but the lot of the people remain the same.

In the poor countries, the Assemblies are full of public representatives who are mainly from the elite class of the country and so all legislation done is the representation of the Elite, not for the proletariat. Consequently, the Proletariat are not represented by the legislature and nor can they represent themselves. In a country like Pakistan, where local democracies are also not functional, the poor and destitute feel even more underrepresented. The same is the case with the social set up where the poor don’t have a voice and so all schemes launched are for the benefit of the upper-class systems. One of the examples is the raise in the salaries of the elite multiple times and the cuts, decrease and taxes added in the income of the poor and the middle class.

This is reflective of the ancient and old kingships and the ruling dynasties where the people were of two types only, i.e. the king and his associates while large number of people on the other hand were simply toiling more than their capacities to generate revenues for the king and his party. The same is the case with the modern day capitalism where the resources are controlled by a few capitalists and the huge number of people have to sell their labor at the lowest possible rates to earn a few pennies and these pennies too they spend to procure his day to day needs and consequently the profit of the capitalist only increases because of the difference in the value of the commodities and the toil of the labor. The extraordinary difference as compared to the purchase value of commodities again stays in the pocket of the elite, as is put forwards by Karl Marx in his critique of the capitalistic system, titled as ‘The Capital’.

This should not have happened in the modern world as here kings have no space to live because people have rights, and they can speak their rights through representatives. But the masses and the poor don’t have their voice and have no way to raise their voice, and even if they try to raise their voice, no one is willing to listen to them. In the absence of their voice being heard, they remain unable to represent themselves and hence no progress takes place, and the existing system keeps on running backwards instead of forwards. So, the need for the hour is that the people must be represented, listened to and allowed to raise their voice because by doing so one can establish an egalitarian state in which all classes are entitled to receive their rights. This has become even more necessary in this age of ours because of the machine technologies like Artificial Intelligence which are already threatening humans to go jobless and so penniless because the rich can make these machines to perform their tasks of earning profits without paying the least amount to any of the workers. The sociopolitical, religious, ethical and cultural dynamics all demand that their must be a well-defined, protected and implemented plan to preserve the rights of the toiling masses which can be secured only if they are effectively and adequately represented