The third China Media Group (CMG) Forum, a mega event showcasing China’s dominant contribution to development and promotion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology began in Beijing on April 29, 2024. Themed “A Force for Good: Shared Responsibility in AI”, the forum brings together top experts and scholars in the field of AI technologies, heads of international organizations and mainstream media outlets, foreign government officials, ambassadors of various countries to China and leaders of multinational corporations. As the topic suggests, this is yet another manifestation of the desire of China to share its knowledge, fruits of its research and development and even latest technologies with the world, which is in sharp contrast to the biased approaches and strategies of some other high technology countries.
I have gathered through interaction with well-informed delegates, especially Chinese media persons and experts of the field that like other technologies, China has also excelled in the development of AI. This is a great achievement given the fact that the country remains a constant target of discriminatory sanctions in respect of transfer of technology as we witnessed attempts made to create hurdles in the way of China when its technological giant Huawei made a leap forward in development and application of the latest 5G technology.
China assumed the status of a leader in the world of science and technology because of commitment and vision of its leadership and initiation of timely policies and decisions. This is evident from the fact that the country began development of AI way back in 1970 when Deng Xiaoping, architect of modern China’s economic reforms, laid stress on science and technology as China’s primary productive force. However, a well-conceived and ambitious programme for development of AI technology domestically was launched in 2017 which seeks to make China a major AI innovation centre by 2030 when the country’s AI market size is expected to grow from the existing $30 billion to $104 billion. China plans to expand AI in many spheres of production, governance and defence by that deadline. In fact, the Chinese government sees AI as a solution to the country’s aging population and decreasing working population, which is expected to increase opportunities for automation,
Though China is second after the United States in terms of development and application of the AI technology, it ranked number one globally in terms of the number of research papers on AI and the number of AI-related patents.
There are, of course, concerns about possible use and misuse of AI in the defence and security but China has a very clear position on the issue. It has repeatedly been offering proposals at different regional and international forums regarding international cooperation on new norms for AI and even envisaged arms control negotiations, focusing on the potential impact of AI.
As China is more than willing to share its research and development with the rest of the world, it would be in the fitness of things if AI and 5G technologies are made part of the bilateral cooperation under the framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It is regrettable that despite the immense benefits of these two technologies, Pakistan has not taken them seriously for indigenous research and development. Several deadlines have passed but we could not launch 5G technology and the same is true of AI, which is not finding its rightful place in our institutions of higher learning. This is a fit case for the all powerful Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) to ponder over and firm up a national strategy for rapid development and application of these technologies in Pakistan. Luckily, we have versatile manpower capable of mastering the world’s complicated technologies like the nuclear and missile and there is no reason we cannot excel in AI and 5G given clear policy guidelines and incentives by the Government.
The third CMG forum is taking place in Beijing at a time when PML(N) supremo and former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif has just visited China and held meetings aimed at forging collaboration in different sectors of the economy. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is also expected to visit the friendly countries sometime next month (May) and with necessary homework the country can forge cooperation with China in the development and use of AI. The Chinese universities are teaching over two thousand AI majors and we can benefit from the Chinese experience to impart knowledge on different aspects of the AI in our universities.
