PESHAWAR: Speakers at a monthly study circle here stressed the need for adopting the fast emerging technology of artificial intelligence (AI), keeping in view career opportunities, scope and demands of hi-tech world.

They said that future belonged to AI as the world market showed the trend of highly-paid engineers and experts around globe overtaking almost every field of life.

Presently, larger usage of AI has been observed in education, healthcare and entrainment industry, attracting mostly youth to engage in shaping the lives of communities to pave way for the incredible ‘change’ through a machine brain working faster and smarter than human brain.

Azam Khan, a young expert on AI with a doctoral degree, said that youth should accept inevitable societal change in the rapidly shifting digital world.

Speakers at study circle say future belongs to AI

He said that mathematics was the lone subject that helped increase brain neurons enabling youth to fight better the war of creative vision in the automated world.

The monthly study circle titled ‘AI: Ethics, opportunities and challenges’ hosted under the umbrella of Bacha Khan Research Centre was held at Bacha Khan Markaz. College and university graduates from diverse backgrounds attended the event.

The chief organiser of the event, Mohammad Shahzad, said that BKRC had completed a series of activities including study circles, book launches, group discussions and publication of books on variety of topics covering linguistic and cultural diversity planned last year.

He said that the main objective of hosting such events was to educate youth on a wide range of pressing local and global needs and issues to promote the cause of non-violence of Bacha Khan, advocacy for peace economy and an inclusive society.

Azam Khan, the expert on AI, said that world market had already been overtaken by the new technology, offering a plethora of opportunities for young professionals, research scholars and entrepreneurs to explore numerous shades and implications of the rising technology for fast shifting from global village to a Meta verse.

He also shed light on the significance, application and inevitability of usage of artificial intelligence in addressing challenges being faced by communities towards a pragmatic solution in the fields of urban and rural development, progress and prosperity.

He dilated upon concerns about AI safety, calling for a robust regularity framework based on ethics within a societal parameters and community guidelines for securing human rights and national interests at large.

The expert bought out the potential transformative impact alongside fairness, accountability and protection of human rights regarding the usage of AI. He said that the world was waiting to ward off AI from superseding human control over the universe. The users needed to distinguish generic response from human response through the magic hi-tech, he added.

Raheel Khan and Jawad Khan, students of pre-engineering, told this scribe that they learnt about the dynamics of artificial intelligence offering self-employed opportunities for young start-ups and entrepreneurs and professionals.

Young aficionados and rights activists including Imran Ashna, Riaz Ghafur, Abid Ghazi and Azizullah Karwan also spoke at the event and shared their insights on the merging technology and its impact on the society.

The debate was followed by question-answer session.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2025