OpenAI ChatGPT: Generative AI Buzz in Pakistan

[Riaz Haq]

A Singapore-based cybersecurity firm Group-IB discovered in June that over 100,000 ChatGPT user accounts were compromised and their credentials found on the Dark Web. Among the accounts reported compromised, India topped with 12,632, followed by Pakistan with 9,217 and Brazil with 6,531. Bangladesh witnessed the fewest instances with 2,463. This report gave a glimpse of the high interest level of Indians and Pakistanis in generative AI.  Another report attributed to Similarweb, which tracks popularity of websites by number of visitors, ranked ChatGPT in Pakistan at number 7, ahead of Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Globally ChatGPT website is ranked 17th. Prior to this, there was a series of news reports about the launch of Presidential Initiative for Artificial Intelligence and Computing (PIAIC) by President Arif Alvi, and then came the government's policy to train one million AI experts in the country by 2027. Pakistanis published 2,600 AI-related research papers from 2016 to 2020, according to Statista. 

Top 10 Countries by Number of ChatGPT Accounts Compromised. Source:...

Back in 2017, then Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi inaugurated a National Centre for Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) at the National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) in Islamabad. It was followed by a Rs 1.1 billion budgetary allocation for select universities with AI research to be coordinated by NCAI. In 2020, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) set up a Center of Artificial Intelligence and Computing (CENTAIC). 

While OpenAI is the first to offer a Generative AI model trained on vast amounts of data, Google has also joined the generative AI race with its own offering. Google BARD appears to have capabilities similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Very little is known about the specific datasets used for training either of them, raising some trust issues about the results produced by them. 

Training/Using Generative AI Foundation Models. Source: Analytics V...

Top global cloud operators Amazon, Google and Microsoft are now offering generative AI services to their clients for an additional fee. Cloud apps developers in Pakistan and elsewhere can train these base  models on their custom datasets to develop AI applications for agriculture, business, education, finance, healthcare, law etc. The AI market in Pakistan is currently estimated at $123 million by Statista Market Insights. 

Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently featured four Pakistani startups at the forefront of AI/ML: SalesFlo, Ozoned Digital, XpertFlow and Trukkr.  SalesFlo offers sales software for FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies.  Ozoned Digital caters to the technology needs of the insurance industry.  XpertFlow is an AI-powered preventative healthcare company.  Trukkr provides financial services and technology for logistics.  These and other startups are well positioned to take advantage of the new generative AI services being offered by cloud vendors. 

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[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan Ranks 4th in the World in Chat GPT Awareness Index 2024

An AI Opportunity Agenda for Pakistan

https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/publicpolicy.google/en//...

If we want to fully harness AI’s transformative potential, we must focus our attention on what we want to achieve, not just what we want to avoid.
In this respect, Pakistan’s 2023 draft National AI Policy (Draft AI Policy) is commendable. It clearly demonstrates the Pakistan government’s appreciation of how AI can help the country sustain its national competitiveness and improve the lives of its citizens by outlining a wide range of developmental initiatives necessary for awareness and adoption of AI, reimagining the transparent and fair use of personal data using AI, and stimulating innovation through industry-academia collaborations and investments in AI-led initiatives.
AI awareness is rising among Pakistan’s general public. The country ranks fourth with 76% of people being aware of ChatGPT, according to Stanford University’s AI Index Report 2024.
Pakistan has also seen several private-sector led initiatives to create even more awareness of AI. For instance, Karachi.AI is recognized as a premier community for Applied AI practitioners. Established in 2017, the community proudly hosts over 10,000 members representing various domains. Its mission revolves around three central pillars: raising awareness, promoting engagement, and driving execution. Karachi. AI hosts regular meetups in Karachi, which are also live streamed on its YouTube channel, along with other educational content about AI.