ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Information Technology Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja warned on Wednesday that foreign-developed artificial intelligence systems could threaten the country’s cultural and religious identity by shaping how young people think, as governments worldwide grapple with the growing influence of AI on societies.

The warning comes amid a global debate over who controls AI technologies, the cultural assumptions embedded in their responses and the limited role of developing countries in setting international governance standards. Pakistan, where roughly two-thirds of the population is young, is seeking to expand domestic AI capabilities while strengthening oversight of digital technologies.

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

She argued that large language models, including ChatGPT, could reflect the perspectives of the societies in which they were developed rather than those of people using them elsewhere.

Khawaja cited an analogy likening responses from such systems to the perspective of a young white man in California, suggesting that Pakistani children and young people were increasingly absorbing ideas shaped outside their own cultural environment.

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

Drawing a comparison with historical efforts to influence societies by changing their education systems, the minister said digital technologies could now shape people’s thinking without requiring direct control over schools or other institutions.

Khawaja said the imbalance extended to international AI governance, citing United Nations research showing that many developing countries had been excluded from major initiatives to shape the technology’s future.

She warned that the transition from a digital society to what she described as an intelligent society could deepen inequalities between countries and among workers with different technological skills.

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

Khawaja said Pakistan was working with private investors and international partners to develop a shared computing infrastructure intended to reduce dependence on foreign AI resources.

She also called for greater international collaboration and access to open-source AI technologies, warning that unequal access could have consequences beyond economic development.

Turning to domestic regulation, the minister said Pakistan would release its national data governance policy within the next couple of weeks as it pilots a system allowing government institutions to exchange information securely.

She said the government was also developing a personal data protection law and emphasized the importance of retaining human oversight as public services and decision-making processes become increasingly digital.