Pakistan’s IT chief calls to ‘indigenize’ AI models

Pakistan needs to ‘indigenize’ Artificial Intelligence (AI) models, said Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja on Saturday.

“We cannot just remain consumers of models made in some foreign countries, which do not include and contextualise our cultural identities,” said Shaza in an address.

“We need to make sure that our perspectives are a part of the larger machine learning that is happening today. We need to ensure that biases do not go against you,” she said.

Talking about government initiatives, Shaza said that the National AI Initiative targets to train one million people in the next five years.

The minister also shed light on the current education system, noting that the current standards need to be upgraded to meet the local demand.

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“We have spoken extensively with the industry, the higher education department and vice chancellors of different universities. Finally, we have mandated that any CS (Computer Science) student who graduates does not just graduate with a degree, but at least one certification or an apprenticeship, which makes them still ready for the future of employment today.”

“Degrees alone would not be sufficient anymore; it is going to be very difficult for our upcoming generation to find jobs, with the traditional degrees that we are giving out today”

She said that the government intends to create a “hybrid model”, where certifications become a mandatory part, “at least for the CS graduates to increase employability amongst our youth”.

Furthermore, the minister urged the country’s higher education systems to upgrade their curriculum. “The curriculum not only needs to reflect what is required today, but will be required in the next 10-20 years,” she said.