Muhammad Usman Amin

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board (KPITB) has officially designated 2026 as the &ldquo;Year of AI,&rdquo; signaling a shift from basic digitization to a future where artificial intelligence becomes a standard public utility. One of the province&rsquo;s most ambitious initiatives under the Smarter Governance Program is the rollout of GovGPT, an AI-driven tool developed through the Durshal Government Fellowship Program. The system is designed to assist government employees across KP in navigating complex regulations and procedures efficiently. &ldquo;We are working on governance digitization that provides real facilitation to citizens as well as the people who serve them,&rdquo; said Ibrahim Saleem, who oversees key projects at the Durshal Fellowship Lab, speaking to Pakistan TV Digital. Complementing this initiative, the Dastak App now features AI chatbots to respond to citizen queries, while Citizen Facilitation Centers (CFCs) serve as physical hubs where AI-backed systems help process documents such as birth and death certificates or domiciles, allowing citizens to track progress through a single window. KPITB is also using AI as a tool for social change. Karishma Zakaullah, head of growth and partnerships at Code for Pakistan, highlighted a gender-inclusive initiative under the D4WEE (Digitization for Women Economic Empowerment) program, run in collaboration with UN Women. The program trains 6,000 girls from Mardan, Swabi, and Peshawar in advanced AI and digital skills. &ldquo;This is the first-of-its-kind Women Digital Internship,&rdquo; Zakaullah said. &ldquo;Girls from far-flung areas like Chitral and DI Khan receive a stipend of Rs30,000, plus mobile phones and internet access, to learn high-demand ICT skills remotely.&rdquo; For urban residents, AI is being deployed to improve daily life. The KP Open Data Portal now powers intelligent traffic management, automatically adjusting congestion points using camera data and traffic flow metrics. Geospatial mapping and air sensors are being used to identify pollution hotspots and improve environmental health. Looking ahead, Voice2Gov is being developed to allow rural residents to access government services via voice commands in local languages such as Pashto and Urdu. By training both graduating students and government personnel in AI, KPITB is ensuring that the &ldquo;Year of AI&rdquo; represents a long-term transformation rather than a temporary trend. &ldquo;Our goal is the proper utilization of the full potential of AI to make life simpler for every citizen of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,&rdquo; Saleem said. A female visitor at the Durshal offices added, &ldquo;The focus is to make Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a leader in Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence while making people&rsquo;s lives easier and smarter.&rdquo;

Economy

System is designed to assist government employees across KP in navigating complex regulations and procedures efficiently; Dastak App now features AI chatbots to respond to citizen queries, while CFCs serve as physical hubs where AI-backed systems help process documents such as birth and death certificates or domiciles, allowing citizens to track progress through a single window.

Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa declares 2026 'Year of AI,' drives inclusive governance

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: While much of the world tracked Pakistan&#39;s economic challenges in 2025, its scientists were quietly rewriting the country&#39;s technological narrative. Where a quantum physicist simulated radar systems that could detect hypersonic threats invisible to conventional technology, a teenager from Rawalpindi outcompeted students from 70 nations to claim biology&#39;s biggest prize. Moreover, twin satellites, launched from opposite sides of the world, began beaming back images to monitor everything from melting glaciers to ripening crops. The year 2025 also brought Pakistan&#39;s most significant scientific advances in decades, spanning quantum computing, space technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and human achievement on the global stage. Quantum leap in defense tech Dr. Zuhair Ahmed doesn&#39;t work in a laboratory with billion-dollar equipment. Instead, the chairman of the Centre of Excellence for Technology, Quantum, and AI Pakistan connects remotely to IBM&#39;s quantum processors to conduct cutting-edge research. In October, his team achieved 99.1% quantum fidelity using a technique called Quantum Time Reversal Interferometry on IBM&#39;s 133-qubit Torino processor. The breakthrough demonstrates error correction essential for making quantum computers reliable enough for complex calculations. However, Ahmed&#39;s November achievement grabbed more international attention: Simulating quantum radar capable of tracking stealth-coated hypersonic missiles. Using a three-qubit quantum circuit, the system locked onto simulated targets at 83.2 kilometers and calculated mid-air interception at roughly 40 kilometers altitude. Both studies, published through SSRN and Elsevier, position Pakistan in an elite group of nations exploring quantum applications for defense and computing. Eyes in orbit Pakistan now has four satellites providing real-time intelligence from space, including two launched in 2025 through partnerships with China and T&uuml;rkiye. The HS-1 hyperspectral satellite was launched on October 19 from China&#39;s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre. Managed by the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, it captures hundreds of spectral bands invisible to the human eye, providing data crucial for predicting floods, monitoring glacial melt, and identifying geological risks along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The PAUSAT-1 CubeSat, a collaboration between Pakistan Air University and Istanbul Technical University, launched January 14 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. Its multispectral imager achieves 1.5-meter ground resolution, sharp enough to distinguish individual vehicles in urban areas. Pakistan also launched its first domestically produced observation satellite, PRSC-EO1, in January and the KS-1 agricultural monitoring satellite in July. Rawalpindi student makes history Abdul Raffay Paracha had competed internationally before, but never won gold. That changed in July at the International Biology Olympiad in the Philippines. The Siddique Public School student became the first Pakistani to claim gold at the IBO since the country began participating in 2006. He competed against top students from more than 70 nations at the 35th edition of the competition. The win validates a decade of investment by the STEM Careers Programme, a partnership between the Higher Education Commission and the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences that identifies and trains talented students. AI for farmers Mahroosh Umer&#39;s team didn&#39;t set out to win a United Nations competition. They wanted to solve a problem: how to help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change without expensive consultants or technology. Their solution, AgriGuard.AI, uses artificial intelligence to deliver climate-smart agricultural advice. In August, it won first place at the AI 4 Good Incubator 2025 in Dubai, part of the UN&#39;s AI for Good Global Summit organized by the International Telecommunication Union. The team beat hundreds of global entries and received seed funding, mentorship and connections to scale the platform for farmers worldwide. What it means The 2025 achievements reflect both growing international partnerships and homegrown talent. The quantum research advances Pakistan&#39;s capabilities in cryptography and materials science. The satellites strengthen disaster preparedness. And the human achievements prove Pakistani students can compete at the highest levels.

From quantum computing milestones to space launches and an Olympiad gold, Pakistan marked its strongest year yet in science and technology. 

Pakistan's Quantum, Space And Glory — All Rolled In 2025 

WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday announced a pact with allies to secure supply chains for minerals needed for artificial intelligence, hoping to secure a key resource as China quickly takes a lead. The United States signed an agreement on the supply chains with key Asia-Pacific allies concerned about China&#39;s growing clout &mdash; Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Australia &mdash; as well as Israel. Dubbed the &quot;Pax Silica,&quot; adapting the Latin terms for peace and silicon, a key material in AI, the partnership aims to secure supply chains and ensure that the countries are not dependent on China. &quot;Pax Silica is a new kind of international grouping and partnership &mdash; one that aims to unite the countries that host the world&#39;s most advanced technology companies to unleash the economic potential of the new AI age,&quot; a State Department statement said. The United States, which said other countries would join, was vague on the practicalities but said countries would work together to ensure timely supply chains. &quot;We believe that this gathering and grouping matters because the global system is shifting from &#39;just in time&#39; to strategically aligned,&quot; said Jacob Helberg, the State Department&#39;s undersecretary for economic affairs. &quot;Pax Silica ultimately ensures that these countries have reliable access to the inputs and infrastructure that determine AI competitiveness,&quot; he told reporters ahead of the signing. China has quickly taken a dominant position in the race for resources in the fast-growing area of artificial intelligence, mining around 70% of key rare earths. The signing in Washington comes despite President Donald Trump this week announcing he will allow the export of Nvidia&#39;s advanced artificial intelligence chips to China, reversing a decision by his predecessor, Joe Biden, who voiced national security concerns in sharing the key technology. Other countries participating in the meetings in Washington on supply chains, without formally joining the Pax Silica, were the United Arab Emirates, Canada, and the Netherlands, as well as the European Union as an institution.

Artificial Intelligence

The signing in Washington comes despite President Donald Trump this week announcing he will allow the export of Nvidia's advanced artificial intelligence chips to China, reversing a decision by his predecessor Joe Biden who voiced national security concerns in sharing the key technology.

US launches pact for AI supply chains to face China

SAN FRANCISCO: Walt Disney and OpenAI announced a three-year licensing deal on Thursday that will allow users to create short videos featuring beloved Disney characters through artificial intelligence. The deal marks the first time a major entertainment company has embraced generative AI at this scale, licensing its fiercely protected characters &mdash; from Mickey Mouse to Marvel superheroes and Star Wars&#39;s Darth Vader &mdash; for AI content creation. The partnership represents a dramatic shift for an industry that has largely been battling AI companies in court. Disney and other creative industry giants have been suing AI firms like OpenAI, Perplexity, and Anthropic, accusing them of illegally using their content to train their technology. The entertainment giant continued that legal campaign on Wednesday, separately sending a cease-and-desist letter to Google over the illegal use of its intellectual property to train the search engine giant&#39;s AI models. For OpenAI, the deal comes as it faces increasing questions about the sustainability of its business model, with costs skyrocketing far faster than revenue &mdash; despite nearing one billion users worldwide. Under the agreement, fans will be able to produce and share AI-generated content featuring more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars franchises on OpenAI&#39;s Sora video generation platform and ChatGPT. Launched at the end of September, Sora aims to be a TikTok-like social network where only AI-generated videos can be posted. From the outset, many videos have included characters directly inspired by real cartoons and video games, from South Park to Pok&eacute;mon. Facing license-holder anger, CEO Sam Altman promised OpenAI would offer rights holders more control to put a stop to these AI copies. The partnership includes a $1 billion equity investment by Disney in OpenAI, along with warrants to purchase additional shares in the ChatGPT maker. Disney shares rose more than 2% Thursday after the announcement. Disney CEO Robert Iger said the collaboration would &quot;thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling.&quot; Characters available for fan creations will include Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Elsa from Frozen, and Marvel heroes like Iron Man and Captain America, as well as Star Wars icons including Darth Vader and Yoda. The agreement excludes talent likenesses and voices from actors amid deep concern in Hollywood about the impact of AI. &quot;This does not in any way represent a threat to the creators at all &mdash; in fact, the opposite. I think it honors them and respects them, in part because there&#39;s a license fee associated with it,&quot; Iger told CNBC. Hollywood&#39;s leading actors union, SAG-AFTRA, said it would &quot;closely monitor&quot; the deal&#39;s implementation, while the Writers Guild of America said it will meet with Disney to probe the terms and underlined that OpenAI had stolen &quot;vast libraries&quot; of studio content to train its technology. 30 secondsIger, in a joint interview with Altman on CNBC, insisted the deal only includes videos no longer than 30 seconds and the technology wouldn&#39;t be used for longer-form productions. Beyond licensing, Disney will deploy OpenAI&#39;s technology to build new products and experiences for Disney+, the streaming platform. &quot;Disney is the global gold standard for storytelling,&quot; Altman said. &quot;This agreement shows how AI companies and creative leaders can work together responsibly.&quot; Both companies emphasized their commitment to responsible AI use, with OpenAI pledging age-appropriate policies and controls to prevent illegal or harmful content generation. In Disney&#39;s complaint against Google, OpenAI&#39;s biggest rival in the AI space, the entertainment giant accuses Google of infringing Disney&#39;s copyrights on a massive scale by copying a large corpus of content without authorization to train and develop AI models and services. &quot;We&#39;ve been aggressive at protecting our IP, and we&#39;ve gone after other companies that have not valued it, and this is another example of us doing just that,&quot; Iger told CNBC.

The deal marks the first time a major entertainment company has embraced generative AI at this scale, licensing its fiercely protected characters for AI content creation.

Make your own Mickey Mouse clip — Disney embraces AI

SAN FRANCISCO: Computer and printer maker HP announced on Tuesday a sweeping restructuring plan that will eliminate about 10% of its workforce globally as the company pivots toward artificial intelligence (AI) to boost efficiency. According to its latest earnings report, the tech giant expects to reduce its global headcount by between 4,000 and 6,000 employees to focus on adopting AI to increase innovation and customer satisfaction. HP&#39;s move reflects a broader trend across the tech sector, where companies are investing heavily in AI development while using the technology to reduce operational costs. Major tech firms including Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have announced workforce reductions over the past two years, with many citing the need to reallocate resources, including jobs, toward AI initiatives. Industry analysts say AI automation is particularly affecting roles in customer support, content moderation, data entry, and certain computer programming tasks. HP said its AI plan aims to generate approximately $1 billion in annual savings by the end of fiscal 2028. The company has been working to transform its business model amid changing demand patterns in the PC and printing markets. HP CEO Enrique Lores told the Wall Street Journal that the company plans to raise the prices of its computers and work with new suppliers to help offset the higher costs of AI computing. In its latest quarter, HP posted a profit of $795 million, compared with $906 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 4.2% to $14.64 billion, topping analyst estimates with sales in PCs offsetting a decline in printer sales.

Tech giant expects to reduce its global headcount by between 4,000 and 6,000 employees to focus on adopting AI to increase innovation, customer satisfaction.

HP to cut thousands of jobs due to AI adoption

SEOUL: South Korean conglomerate Samsung unveiled on Sunday a plan to invest $310 billion over the next five years, mostly in technology powering artificial intelligence, aiming to meet growing demand driven by a global boom.&nbsp;The business group&#39;s flagship Samsung Electronics is already one of the world&#39;s top memory-chip makers, providing crucial components for the AI industry and the infrastructure it relies on.&nbsp;South Korea is also home to SK hynix, another key player in the global semiconductor market.&nbsp;The five-year investment package includes plans to build a new semiconductor facility, Pyeongtaek Plant 5, designed &quot;to meet the needs of memory-chip demands&quot;, Samsung said in a statement.&nbsp;Once fully operational, &quot;the Pyeongtaek plant is expected to play an even greater strategic role in both the global semiconductor supply chain and South Korea&#39;s domestic chip ecosystem,&quot; it said.&nbsp;The new line is scheduled to begin operations in 2028.&nbsp;Samsung SDS, the group&#39;s IT and logistics arm, will establish two AI data centres in South Jeolla and Gumi, the company said, without providing further details.&nbsp;Samsung Group is a network of affiliated companies with complex cross-shareholdings under the Samsung brand, rather than a single legal holding company.&nbsp;It is South Korea&#39;s largest chaebol, a family-run conglomerate that dominates the country&#39;s economy.&nbsp;The $310-billion plan also includes some projects unrelated to AI.&nbsp;Under the investment package, the company said that Samsung SDI, its electric-vehicle battery affiliate, was exploring the creation of a domestic production line &quot;for next-generation batteries, including all-solid-state batteries&quot;.&nbsp;The AI boom has delivered a major tailwind for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, whose high-performance memory chips have become indispensable for AI computing.&nbsp;Samsung Electronics has reported that its profit increased more than 30% year-on-year in the third quarter, driven by AI-fuelled demand.&nbsp;AI-related spending is soaring worldwide, and sky-high tech share valuations have fed concerns of an AI market bubble that could eventually burst, like the dot-com boom that imploded at the turn of the millennium.&nbsp;The investment package announced on Sunday comes after the South Korean government had pledged to triple spending on artificial intelligence next year.&nbsp;President Lee Jae Myung has vowed to &quot;usher in the AI era&quot; and make the country one of the world&#39;s top three AI powers, behind the United States and China.

Samsung announced a $310 billion five-year investment focused on AI technologies, including a new chip plant and AI data centers. The plan strengthens South Korea’s semiconductor ecosystem amid booming global AI demand and government efforts to expand AI leadership.

Samsung plans $310B investment to power AI expansion

MELBOURNE: Deloitte Australia will partially refund the 440,000 Australian dollars ($290,000) paid by the Australian government for a report that was riddled with apparent AI-generated errors, including a fabricated quote from a federal court judgment and references to nonexistent academic research papers. The financial services firm&rsquo;s report to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations was initially published on the department&#39;s website in July. A revised version was released on Friday after Chris Rudge, a University of Sydney researcher of health and welfare law, said he alerted the media that the report was &ldquo;full of fabricated references.&rdquo; Deloitte reviewed the 237-page report and &ldquo;confirmed some footnotes and references were incorrect,&rdquo; the department said in a statement Tuesday. &ldquo;Deloitte has agreed to repay the final installment under its contract,&rdquo; the department said. The amount will be made public after the refund is processed. Asked to comment on the inaccuracies, Deloitte told The Associated Press in a statement that the &ldquo;matter has been resolved directly with the client.&rdquo; Deloitte did not respond to questions about whether the errors were generated by artificial intelligence. A tendency for generative AI systems to fabricate information is known as hallucination. The report reviewed the department&rsquo;s IT systems and their use of automated penalties in Australia&#39;s welfare system. The department said the &ldquo;substance&rdquo; of the report had been maintained and that there were no changes to its recommendations. The revised version included a disclosure that a generative AI language system, Azure OpenAI, was used in writing the report. Quotes attributed to a federal court judge were removed, as were references to nonexistent reports attributed to law and software engineering experts. Rudge said he found up to 20 errors in the first version of the report. The first error that caught his attention incorrectly stated that Lisa Burton Crawford, a professor of public and constitutional law at the University of Sydney, had written a nonexistent book with a title suggesting it was outside her field of expertise. &ldquo;I instantaneously knew it was either hallucinated by AI or the world&rsquo;s best-kept secret because I&rsquo;d never heard of the book and it sounded preposterous,&rdquo; Rudge said. Work by his academic colleagues had been used as &ldquo;tokens of legitimacy,&rdquo; cited by the report&rsquo;s authors but not read, Rudge said, adding that he considered misquoting a judge a more serious error in a report that was effectively an audit of the department&rsquo;s legal compliance. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve totally misquoted a court case, then made up a quotation from a judge, and I thought, well, hang on &mdash; that&rsquo;s actually a bit bigger than academics&rsquo; egos. That&rsquo;s about misstating the law to the Australian government in a report they rely on. So I thought it was important to stand up for diligence,&rdquo; Rudge said. Senator Barbara Pocock, the Australian Greens party&rsquo;s spokesperson on the public sector, said Deloitte should refund the entire AU$440,000 ($290,000). Deloitte &ldquo;misused AI and used it very inappropriately &mdash; misquoted a judge, used references that are nonexistent,&rdquo; Pocock told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. &ldquo;I mean, the kinds of things that a first-year university student would be in deep trouble for.&rdquo;

People arrive at the offices of Deloitte in Melbourne, Australia, on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Rod McGuirk)

The report had AI-generated errors, including a fabricated quote from a federal court judgment and references to nonexistent academic research papers.

Deloitte to partially refund Australia for report containing AI-generated errors

<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TOKYO: US technology company Nvidia and Fujitsu, a Japanese telecommunications and computer maker, agreed Friday to work together on artificial intelligence to deliver smart robots and a variety of other innovations using Nvidia&#39;s computer chips. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;The AI industrial revolution has already begun. Building the infrastructure to power it is essential in Japan and around the world,&rdquo; Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said, hugging his Fujitsu counterpart Takahito Tokita on stage. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;Japan can lead the world in AI and robotics,&rdquo; Huang told reporters at a Tokyo hotel. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The companies will work together on building what they called &ldquo;an AI infrastructure,&rdquo; or the system on which the various futuristic AI uses will be based, including health care, manufacturing, the environment, next-generation computing and customer services. The hope is to establish AI infrastructure for Japan by 2030. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It initially will be tailored for the Japanese market, leveraging Fujitsu&rsquo;s decades-long experience here, but may later expand globally, and will utilize Nvidia&rsquo;s GPUs, or graphics processing units, which are essential for AI, according to both sides. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The two executives did not outline specific projects or give a monetary figure for planned investments. But exploring a collaboration in AI for robots with Yaskawa Electric Corp., a Japanese machinery and robot maker, was noted as a possible example. AI will be constantly evolving and learning, they said.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fujitsu and Nvidia have been working together on AI, speeding up manufacturing with digital twins and robotics to tackle aging Japan&rsquo;s labor shortages. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tokita said the companies were taking a &ldquo;humancentric&rdquo; approach aimed at keeping Japan competitive. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;Through our collaboration with Nvidia, we aim to create new, unprecedented technologies and contribute to solving even more serious social issues,&rdquo; said Tokita.

Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang, left, and Fujitsu Chief Executive Takahito Tokita shake hands during an announcement in Tokyo Friday

US technology company Nvidia and Fujitsu, a Japanese telecommunications and computer maker, agreed Friday to work together on artificial intelligence to deliver smart robots and a variety of other innovations using Nvidia's computer chips.

Nvidia and Fujitsu agree to work together on AI robots

NEW YORK: A digital character named Tilly Norwood, promoted as Hollywood&rsquo;s first &ldquo;artificial intelligence actor,&rdquo; has ignited a heated debate in the US film industry, with unions and performers denouncing the move as a threat to human creativity. Tilly Norwood was created by Xicoia, a Dutch company that calls itself the world&rsquo;s first artificial intelligence talent studio. The project is spearheaded by producer and comedian Eline Van der Velden, who showcased the AI character last weekend at the Zurich Summit, part of the Zurich Film Festival. She said talent agencies were already expressing interest and hinted at a forthcoming representation deal. But not in a good way. Guilds, actors and filmmakers have met the Xicoia product with an immediate wave of backlash, protesting that artificial intelligence should not have a starring role in the acting profession. In a statement Tuesday, the Screen Actors Guild said that &ldquo;creativity is, and should remain, human-centered.&rdquo; &ldquo;To be clear, &lsquo;Tilly Norwood&rsquo; is not an actor, it&rsquo;s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers &mdash; without permission or compensation,&rdquo; the guild said. &ldquo;It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we&rsquo;ve seen, audiences aren&rsquo;t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.&rdquo; Van der Velden, founder of the AI production studio Particle6, last weekend promoted Tilly Norwood at the Zurich Summit, the industry sidebar of the Zurich Film Festival. She said then that talent agencies were circling Norwood and that she expected to soon announce a signing. Many in Hollywood, though, hope that never happens. &ldquo;Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a...,&rdquo; wrote actor Melissa Barrera (&ldquo;In the Heights,&rdquo; &ldquo;Scream&rdquo;) on social media. &ldquo;How gross, read the room.&rdquo; &ldquo;Any talent agency that engages in this should be boycotted by all guilds,&rdquo; wrote Natasha Lyonne on Instagram. The &ldquo;Russian Doll&rdquo; star is directing a feature titled &ldquo;Uncanny Valley&rdquo; that pledges to use &ldquo;ethical&rdquo; artificial intelligence in combination with traditional filmmaking techniques. &ldquo;Deeply misguided &amp; totally disturbed,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;Not the way. Not the vibe. Not the use.&rdquo; Artificial intelligence is often used as a tool in film production, though its implementation is hotly debated. It was a major bargaining point in the lengthy strike by SAG-AFTRA that concluded in late 2023 with some safeguards put in place to protect the use of actors&#39; likenesses and performances by AI. A yearlong strike by video game actors hinged on AI protections. In July, video game actors approved a new contract that mandates employers obtain written permission to create a digital replica. But there have been numerous controversies over the use of AI in acting. The Oscar-winning 2024 film &ldquo;The Brutalist&rdquo; used artificial intelligence for Hungarian dialogue spoken by Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones&rsquo; characters, the revelation of which prompted debate in the industry. Van der Velden responded to the stir around Tilly Norwood on Instagram. &ldquo;To those who have expressed anger over the creation of my AI character, Tilly Norwood, she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work &mdash; a piece of art,&rdquo; Van der Velden said on Sunday. &ldquo;Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity.&rdquo; Van der Velden didn&#39;t respond to interview requests Tuesday. In her post, she argued that AI characters should be judged as their own genre. &ldquo;Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination and craftsmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping a performance,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;It takes time, skill and iteration to bring such a character to life.&rdquo; That statement was also shared on Tilly Norwood&#39;s own Instagram account. Posts include photos of the creation drinking coffee, shopping for clothes and preparing for various projects. As of Tuesday, the account had more than 33,000 followers. &ldquo;Had such a blast filming some screen tests recently,&rdquo; one post reads. &ldquo;Every day feels like a step closer to the big screen.&rdquo;

SAG-AFTRA picketers carry signs outside NBC in Rockefeller Center on July 17, 2023, in New York.

A digital character named Tilly Norwood, promoted as Hollywood’s first “artificial intelligence actor,” has ignited a heated debate in the U.S. film industry, with unions and performers denouncing the move as a threat to human creativity.

'AI actor' Tilly Norwood stirs outrage in Hollywood

<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ISLAMABAD: Pakistan urged the United Nations to regulate artificial intelligence, particularly its military use, warning it could destabilize global security. Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said its use must follow international law.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">According to a statement by the Associated Press of Pakistan, Asif described artificial intelligence as a consequential, dual-use technology that can accelerate socio-economic progress but also deepen inequalities.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He urged states to prohibit applications &ldquo;without meaningful human control&rdquo; and warned that unregulated use enables disinformation campaigns, offensive cyber operations and new types of armaments.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Minister Asif said these developments raise &ldquo;serious questions for the future of warfare,&rdquo; as artificial intelligence &ldquo;lowers the threshold for use of force,&rdquo; making wars more feasible and compressing decision time for diplomacy.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UN debate on AI risks<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The meeting was chaired by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, as his country holds the Council&rsquo;s rotating presidency for September, APP reported.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Opening the debate, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said artificial intelligence is &ldquo;no longer a distant horizon&rdquo; and, while it can aid de-mining, food security and violence prevention, &ldquo;without guardrails, it can also be weaponized.&rdquo;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">President Myung urged a legally binding ban by 2026 on lethal autonomous weapons operating without human control and stressed that any decision on nuclear weapon use must rest with humans, not machines, APP reported.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yejin Choi, a senior fellow at Stanford University&rsquo;s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, said current progress is concentrated among a handful of companies and countries.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yejin Choi urged investment in smaller, adaptive systems to lower barriers to entry and pressed for stronger linguistic and cultural representation, noting leading models underperform for many non-English languages.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pakistan&rsquo;s domestic AI push<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pakistan&rsquo;s intervention comes amid domestic steps to expand access to artificial intelligence tools and skills.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google announced on Wednesday the rollout of its Google AI Plus plan in 40 additional countries, including Pakistan. In a statement, Google Pakistan Country Director Farhan Qureshi described the local digital landscape as &ldquo;vibrant and growing,&rdquo; Dawn reported.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In July, the federal cabinet approved the National Artificial Intelligence Policy 2025, which outlines training one million professionals by 2030, creating public and private funds to spur innovation, and launching thousands of civic projects and local products to build capacity and jobs.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Secretary-General Guterres closed the session warning that the window to shape artificial intelligence &ldquo;for peace, for justice, for humanity&rdquo; is narrowing and urged swift action by member states to set rules, build institutions and insist on human dignity, echoing past global governance efforts in nuclear arms control and aviation safety.

Security

Pakistan urged the United Nations to regulate artificial intelligence, particularly its military use, warning it could destabilize global security. Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said its use must follow international law.

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