PESHAWAR: Experts here on Tuesday called for adopting artificial intelligence as a tool to enhance human capabilities and enriching lives.
They were speaking at a daylong seminar titled “AI Fusion: academia and industry perspectives” held at the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Peshawar.The summit brought together experts from industry, academia, and the public sector to exchange views on AI and its impact on education.
Addressing the participants, UET Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Qaisar Ali said artificial intelligence had brought about a revolution across the world. He said the countries that were benefiting from this technology had worked hard to acquire this knowledge.
Engr. Javed Saleem Qureshi, who is former chairman of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) said, the seminars were being conducted in various engineering universities to sensitize the academia and industry for getting clarity of vision to adopt AI as a force for good, enhancing human capabilities and enriching lives. He cited the UN report that the market for artificial intelligence (AI) was expected to show strong growth in the coming decade. He said that its value of nearly 6 trillion dollars was expected to grow up to nearly 18 trillion dollars by 2030. He said Pakistani expatriates from the Silicon Valley will conduct the Training of Trainers courses on AI in fifteen engineering universities in Pakistan.
Prof Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid Rector GIKI said, this was the right time to align our education system with global standards by embracing modern techniques. He said the curriculum taught in engineering universities was very rigid so the government should make changes based on industry’s demands to get the desired skill set from universities.
This can only be achieved if our graduates, teachers, faculty members, and policymakers all actively are engaged as stakeholders in this journey, he added.
Prof Dr Abdul Shakoor of Mechanical Engineering Department, UET, said the education institutions were responsible to exploit the technology in AI, data science which were connected to each other.Prof Dr Ali Sajid (TI), an expert from industry, said that Pakistan will have to prove its existence through “now or parish forever” approach.
In the panel discussion, experts from academia and industry provided insightful perspectives on the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, both domestically and globally and avenues for its application.