Excerpts from MILITARY’S GUIDE TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ISSUE PAPER 5
Air Vice Marshal Faheem Ullah Malik (Retd) Maham S. Gillani, Zuhaib Anwar
Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies, Islamabad
As the world’s leading countries continue to adopt advance AI practices, Pakistan is now awakening to utilise AI in furthering her technological progress and advancing scientific prowess. The lack of awareness, want of initiative and inconsistency in policy towards scientific development can be attributed to the dismal state of technology and industrialisation in the country, which has been marred by the energy crisis, an unsteady economy and political instability. The Armed Forces, however, adopted AI use in less sensitive areas and examined the possibility of expanding AI applicability in other operational domains. Globally, in the last two years, comprehension of AI potential has also found countries formulating strategies to promote its use and development in all related fields, including military. The list of these countries includes technologically advanced nations such as Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, Singapore, UK etc. India established an AI task force in October 2017.
An analysis of most AI strategies implemented by advanced countries reveals that ‘scientific research, talent development, skill, education, public-private sector adoption, ethics, standards, regulation of data and developing digital infrastructure’ formed the bedrock of their national AI policies.31
From Pakistan’s perspective, it is important to assess its long-term strategic priorities. Some of these priorities have been enunciated in Pakistan’s ‘Vision 2025’ document to a certain extent. Key enablers in the vision document include ‘developing human and social capital, achieving sustained indigenisation and inclusive growth, democratic governance, institutional reform and modernisation of public sector.’32 While catering for national objectives, the vision does not specifically encompass any AI strategy to further national security objectives or address challenges emerging from a volatile neighbourhood in a networked world.
In this context, there has remained a policy vacuum vis-à-vis development of AI in Pakistan, and subsequent progress and proficiency in this exceptionally important emerging technological realm, in the country.
Nevertheless, the government, academia and the defence forces of Pakistan have recently taken important steps to build AI-related infrastructure in the country.
Government Initiatives
In 2019, the ‘Digital Pakistan’ was launched, a governmental initiative aimed at introducing latest technology for public welfare.33 President’s Initiative for Artificial Intelligence and Computing (PIAIC) and the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) were also announced to stimulate the advancement of AI in Pakistan. The government launched PIAIC in 2019, to promote education, research, and business in AI. Through these initiatives, the government aims to transform Pakistan into a hub for AI, data sciences, augmented reality, blockchain, edge computing, cloud native computing and IoT. Currently, three one-year programmes on AI, cloud native and blockchain are being offered under PIAIC.
NCAI was launched in 2018 to spur the growth of AI research in Pakistan under the government’s ‘Vision 2025’. The initiative aims to make NCAI ‘a leading hub of innovation, scientific research, knowledge transfer and training to local economy, in AI as well as in its derivative fields.’34 The project was launched with a funding of a PKR 1.1 billion, which was to be consumed in the next three years for developing and operating labs located in six top universities of Pakistan. Under the project, Deep Learning Lab and Intelligent Field Robotics Lab was established at NUST, Islamabad; Medical Imaging and Diagnostics Lab at CIIT, Islamabad; Smart City Lab and Neuro-Computation Lab at NED, Karachi; Intelligent Criminology Lab at UET, Lahore; Agent-Based Modelling Lab at Punjab University, Lahore and Intelligent Information Processing and Intelligent System Design Lab at UET, Peshawar.35 HEC and Planning Commission of Pakistan jointly selected these labs and their respective principal investigators through a rigorous selection process.
Initiatives by Academia
NED University, Karachi established the Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (RCAI) in 2016 for promotion of theoretical and applied knowledge of AI in academia and industry, and to assist in policy-formulation and planning.36 The centre aims to promote and contribute towards AI in Pakistan. It also aims to provide training base at various academic levels and offers consultancy support to both industry as well as government, in addition to maximising Pakistan’s participation in international AI community. The research centre targets application areas in building infrastructure, robotics, transportation, decision support systems etc. for national institutional planning in the fields of water and food resources, finance, security systems, energy, smart grid, and cyber security. This also allows RCAI to create integrated solutions including, hardware and software.37 IBA has also established its research centre on AI to produce and contribute knowledge to the field. The lab has been functioning since 2009 and aims to serve as a forum for development of intelligent systems and generating discussions on emerging technologies within the field of AI.38
Furthermore, an encouraging development in the domain of AI is that a number of other leading universities such as NUCES-FAST, Air University and Centre for Advanced Studies in Engineering (CASE) etc. have started offering BS degree in AI. It is a welcome and much needed step in the right direction as it would aid in building future indigenous human resource specialised in AI. The students studying AI in these universities today, would be the leaders of the field tomorrow.
Initiatives by the Defence Forces: PAF Leading the Way
Pakistani military is well familiar with AI dividends and remains abreast with technology as a compulsion of living in a challenging neighbourhood. For any air force, which strives to maintain technological advantage, it is an obligation to remain updated. The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) established the Centre of Artificial Intelligence and Computing (CENTAIC) in 2020 to integrate AI in modern air warfare arena. It is meant as ‘the vanguard of AI development in the country for both military and civilian purposes, enabling the PAF to integrate AI into its operational domain.’39 It would also pave the way for Pakistan to sign bilateral and multilateral R&D initiatives with different countries promoting the exchange of learning and experience in AI technology. CENTAIC will explore key domains of AI including ‘Big Data, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Predictive Analysis, and Natural Language Processing (NLP)’ as well as drive the development of PAF’s fifth-generation stealth fighter jets, Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and other advanced weapons under Project Azm. AI could be employed
in Project Azm for several applications such as algorithms for guidance systems for air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, image processing for TV/IR seekers, and Human-Machine-Interfaces (HMI).’40
Conclusion
Pakistan, with a booming population of over 220 million is rapidly digitising. The number of people using Internet in the country grew nearly 25% between 2018 and 2019, making Pakistan one of Asia’s fastest-growing internet markets. The data also reflects the growing thirst for digitalisation and tech savviness of Pakistani youth, many of whom work on AI systems and software development in the country and abroad. However, for moving to the next level, Pakistan needs to develop a technological ecosystem and revamp its outdated education system. The academia-industrial linkage needs to be strengthened to accrue true benefits of the AI surge.
The government policies introduced in the last two years are designed to speed up digitalisation but need to be implemented with truest sincerity and dedication. It is also absolutely necessary to plug the AI brain drain, which is seriously impeding development in the ICT sector. Moreover, without adequate hardware manufacturing capability and software control, Pakistan would remain dependent on foreign sources for its critical cyber security requirements. The country also needs to speed up its collaboration efforts with world AI leaders especially China; both in terms of learning experience and induction of systems.
At present, it would be prudent for defence forces to only invest in indigenous AI systems, which guarantee data security and tamper free, reliable operations. Today, Pakistan also has some of the top-notch software houses that are paving the way for innovation in the field of AI. This talent needs to be retained, encouraged, and supported to contribute at the national and international level.
Recommendations
Owing to the unbelievably rare and formidable prospects that AI offers, there is an aggressive R&D race between techno-leading powers, inter alia, US, Russia, China, UK, France, Japan, Germany, India etc. It has been noted that the states that would succeed in realising the benefits of AI, while reasonably managing the risks of the technology, would have a competitive advantage over their rivals in nearly every field. In the foreseeable future, countries with mature and controllable AI architect would enjoy the same advantage over lesser AI advanced states as those of industrially advanced states over non-industrial states. Any lag developed would be hard to bridge, as the ‘haves’ would not share their technological advantage and intellectual property free of cost.
Pakistan must immediately initiate essential measures in order to timely acquire the crucial technological knowledge base and develop necessary infrastructure to reap the benefits offered by AI. Owing to the availability of a large volume of data
- which is a prerequisite for AI technology – Pakistan is placed in an ideal position to acquire, develop, and advance AI capability and capacity. It also means that by virtue of capitalising on its data resource, Pakistan could become an integral part of the international digital revolution. Decisions based on empirical evidence are infinitely better than those on intuition and anecdotal evidence. The tragedy is that the World Bank and IMF use the country’s own data to suggest policy changes, while the government is unable to do the same, nor is able to anticipate what harm these suggested policies could do.
Pakistan needs to develop a robust ‘National AI Policy’ to advance and develop AI in the country. This policy would not only create favourable and encouraging domestic AI environment (with inward/outward option
of transfer of technology) but also provide wide scope of joint ventures (JV) and international collaborative projects in Pakistan; while safeguarding own interests and regulating unfettered
outside access to own data.
In this context, following frameworks are suggested for important pillars of the state, including the government, academia, private sector, and the Armed Forces.
Recommendations for the Government
- The Government of Pakistan (GoP) needs to initiate the most urgent
measures to address the existing lag and stagger in our national strife towards AI.
An expert body consisting of elected parliamentarians
(federal and provincial), academicians, industrialists, software engineers, bureaucrats and personnel from the defence forces can be constituted, with head of Senate Committee on Science and Technology in chair,
to prepare and present a policy framework.
The aforementioned policy may include proposed infrastructure at federal & provincial levels, practical and workable policies governing their tasks, industrial and academic initiatives, timelines, accountability processes, future courses, selected goals, etc. – for rapid development and advancement of AI in the country. This framework may be called the ‘National AI Policy (NAIP).’
- For effective and structured application of the policy:
An ‘Artificial Intelligence and Computing Division’ may be created under Ministry of Science & Technology at federal level. However, this division may have its provincial directorates, working under provincial administrative structures but operating under the federal framework of national AI development plan.
The Federal Division should be led by a world-renowned Pakistani origin AI professional – a technocrat who has the knowledge and experience of subject requirements, intricacies, impediments etc. The department could comprise of 55% AI professionals, 35% social scientists and 10% administrative or secretarial human resource. The division should independently explicate its goals and objectives, with timeline milestones, within the scope of NAIP. In other words, the department and its personnel should have clear foresight as to how, why, when and what they aim to achieve through function of AI applications. Formulation of an elaborative yet precise strategic framework for attaining the objectives specified in NAIP would be the foremost responsibility of this division.
- Parliamentary oversight must be maintained through abovementioned committee over activities, progress, and milestone achievements of newly formed ‘AI & Computing Division’. The committee should also monitor, evaluate, and review the progress made on enunciated policy and tasks by the division on a regular basis to gauge its performance and progress of AI in the country. This would not
only aid in assessment of effectiveness of the newly created division but also provide timely feedback and corrective options to review the newly drafted NAIP. Similar provincial representative committees may also be formed for monitoring and guidance at respective provincial levels.
- A national endowment for AI, set up to the tune of a few billion rupees, would indicate the government’s commitment in pursuit of this field. The same may also be used for basic funding or as seed money to new start-ups and young entrepreneurs, focusing on encouragement and stimulation of development of AI technology in Pakistan. This would also help in creating research as well as entrepreneurship opportunities in this novel field.
- Pakistani nationals working abroad in the field of AI could be persuaded to return to the country, to share their knowledge and transfer skills; thus, hastening in-country development in the field at a faster pace. This could be done by offering them better incentives in the form of handsome pay packages, career advancement and other business opportunities. The arrangement could also be on temporary or permanent relocation basis, at the convenience of both sides.
- Pakistan also has a large pool of graduates in IT, Computer Science, and other overlapping fields, who have migrated to Western countries in search of better learning, experience, job opportunities, etc.
This brain drain could be prevented by placing a mechanism for retaining these bright minds in the country. This could include offering financial and career progression incentives to young entrepreneurs and job seekers.
- Different types and levels of infrastructural facilities and resources are required for development and use of AI (supercomputers being a case in point), to process large volumes of data (big data). The government needs to ensure that the access, availability, and relaxed import of such resources is possible through higher education and research institutions that are engaged in R&D in the field of AI.
- The government also needs to contemplate, create, and implement policies ensuring that procedural, fiscal or administrative impediments do not impinge upon development and advancement of AI in Pakistan.
The relevant state institutions should ensure the preclusion of bureaucratic bottlenecks, systematic inertia and ensure that Pakistani AI researchers are given unhindered access
(soft & hardware accessibility) to big data so that they can work eficiently.
- Apart from emphasis on policy initiatives focusing on learning, developing, and adapting AI skills; indigenisation of hardware for local production and development of AI related microchips / boards / circuitry etc. also needs to become part of the policy initiative.
Development and manufacturing of indigenous advanced computing and data management hardware systems needs to be taken up as a strategic national compulsion.
- With advancement in the field of AI, criticality and importance of data increases as do chances of data theft and hacking. Therefore, data protection policies and laws need to be enacted by the government that would provide a domestic as well as international legislative framework governing the collection and use of Pakistan’s data. The laws shall have provisions, explicating offenses, and punishments in case(s) of violation(s).
- The GoP may constitute an autonomous ‘Data Protection Authority’, responsible for protection of data and creation of a transparent system regarding rights, privileges, responsibilities, access, use, sharing, storage, security etc. of data. The Authority can:
enforce protection of personal, public, classified, and private data, create awareness of the importance of data protection,
prevent any misuse of any kind of data and entertain complaints regarding infringement of data laws,
devise registration mechanism and formulate Licensing Framework for data access, collection, sharing, controlling, processing, security etc. at personal, institutional, private/public organisational or official levels,
act as a conduit between various public and private organisations helping them acquire essential data legally, and,
act as a bridge between academia and industry, facilitating R&D while simultaneously assuming a client role by gathering inputs from academia and industry partners in improving existing regulations/laws.