Pakistan Cautions That Imported AI Systems Risk Eroding Cultural and Religious Identity

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, warned Wednesday that artificial intelligence systems developed abroad could undermine the nation’s cultural and religious identity by influencing how young people think, as governments worldwide wrestle with AI’s growing societal impact.

The caution arrives amid a global debate over who controls AI technologies, the cultural biases embedded in their outputs, and the limited voice developing nations have in shaping international governance standards. With roughly two-thirds of its population under the age of 30, Pakistan is pushing to expand domestic AI capabilities while tightening oversight of digital technologies.

“Who is curating this reality for all of us?” Khawaja asked, arguing that Pakistan’s social identities are at stake alongside its economic and national security interests.

She contended that large language models, such as ChatGPT, often reflect the perspectives of the societies where they were created rather than those of the diverse populations using them. Khawaja cited an analogy comparing the output of such systems to the worldview of a young white man in California, suggesting that Pakistani youth are increasingly absorbing ideas shaped far outside their own cultural context.

“Our languages, our religion, our roots, our culture, our societies — that also today has come on stake,” she said.

Drawing a parallel to historical efforts to influence societies by overhauling their education systems, the minister said digital technologies can now shape thinking without requiring direct control over schools or institutions.

Khawaja said this imbalance extends to international AI governance, pointing to United Nations research showing that many developing countries have been excluded from major initiatives shaping the technology’s future. She warned that the shift from a digital society to what she termed an “intelligent society” could deepen inequalities between nations and among workers with varying technological skills.

“AI will not take jobs, but if you and I have the same skill and I know how to use AI, I am 100 times more productive than you are,” she said.

Khawaja said Pakistan is collaborating with private investors and international partners to build a shared computing infrastructure aimed at reducing reliance on foreign AI resources. She also called for greater international cooperation and access to open-source AI technologies, cautioning that unequal access could have repercussions beyond economic development.

On the domestic front, the minister said Pakistan will release its national data governance policy within weeks as it pilots a system allowing government institutions to exchange information securely. She added that the government is also drafting a personal data protection law and stressed the importance of retaining human oversight as public services and decision-making processes become increasingly digitized.

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