Govt allocates Rs1.1bn for Artificial Intelligence projects in Pakistan

Moving forward with technology, Pakistan is all set to start a project on Artificial Intelligence with the government allocating around Rs 1.1 billion for that.

Under the supervision of Higher Education Commission (HEC), Government of Pakistan has assigned a budget of Rs 1.1 billion for a period of three years for starting a project on Artificial Intelligence. Six public sector universities have been picked out for setting up nine labs to carry out research in the field of AI.

As per Tech Juice, HEC has appointed Dr Yasir Ayaz from National University of Science and Technology (NUST) as a head of this project. Ayaz also expressed that this initiative was a right one taken by the Pakistani government.

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He said, “This is an era of fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) but Pakistan is still living in the second industrial revolution (Industry 2.0) era. We were lagging far behind the rest of the world as the developed countries have started using AI to maximize the production of the industrial sector. The use of robotics in the warfare is becoming a routine matter whereas AI is being used by the modern world for surveillance purpose.”

Out of 19 universities from public and private sectors that applied for the project, six public sector universities were selected based on equipment and facility. Among the universities, the selected ones include NED UET Karachi, University of Punjab Lahore, NUST Islamabad, University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Peshawar, UET Lahore, and Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) University.

The project’s headquarter will be set at NUST and two laboratories will be arranged, Intelligent Robotics Lab and Deep Learning Lab. Medical Imaging and Diagnostic Lab will be arranged by CIIT University, and NET UET Karachi has been granted for two labs, Smart City Lab and Neuro Computation Lab.

Moreover, UET Lahore has been approved of creating an Intelligent Criminology Lab along with Punjab University to develop Agent-Based Computational Modeling Lab. Ayaz also informed that every university will be initially provided with Rs. 70-75 million to set up the labs. Each university will also offer Masters and Ph.D. in the field of AI, local media reported.