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The age of uncertAInty: AI’s effects on jobs and policy AI is coming for your jobs...but which jobs, and how quickly? Associate Professor of Economics at Lahore University of Management Sciences Ali Hasanain held a session on Tuesday at the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce & Industry about the Economics of AI. He explained the current state of LLMs, the potential effects of advanced models on labour markets and implications for jobs, productivity and policy. With Pakistan's expanding digital economy and the desire to implement AI on a national scale, these discussions are essential as they will shape new business strategies and guide the workforce to effectively work with AI models. The sprint of progress AI can be described as "intelligence everywhere, at a low cost," according to Hasanain. It recognises specific patterns and learns how to act on them. AI models have been doubling the datasets they're trained on every six months since 2010. "The trou...

Solar energy brightens Middle East’s least electrified nation Yemen’s first large-scale solar plant is helping to alleviate electricity shortages in the southern port city of Aden, bringing some relief to residents and businesses, which suffer losses particularly when the intense summer heat hits. Funded by the United Arab Emirates and operational since July 2024, the Aden Solar Power Plant marks a significant shift towards renewable energy in a country the International Energy Agency lists as the Middle East’s least electrified. Yemen has been grappling with almost 30 years of electricity crisis due to fuel shortages and a war that caused severe damage to the national power infrastructure. Located north of Aden - the interim seat of Yemen's internationally recognised government - the 120-megawatt plant supplies electricity to between 150,000 and 170,000 homes daily, according to Sabri al-Maamari, a technician at the plant. "Power outages used to cause damage to goods, and w...

DeepSeek releases AI model on route to next generation Chinese AI developer DeepSeek has released its "experimental" latest model, which it said was more efficient to train and better at processing long sequences of text than previous iterations of its large language models. The Hangzhou-based company called DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp an "intermediate step toward our next-generation architecture" in a post on developer forum Hugging Face. That architecture will likely be DeepSeek's most important product release since V3 and R1 shocked Silicon Valley and tech investors outside China. The V3.2-Exp model includes a mechanism called DeepSeek Sparse Attention, which the Chinese firm says can cut computing costs and boost some types of model performance. DeepSeek said in a post on X on Monday that it is cutting API prices by "50%+". While DeepSeek's next-generation architecture is unlikely to ro...

Bugs go bionic while Pakistan plugs into AI Pakistan’s future is in data Mari Energies Limited (MARI), one of Pakistan’s top oil and gas explorers, has created a new subsidiary dubbed Mari Technologies. They plan to make a 5MW data centre in Islamabad and plan to make another one in Karachi. It’s definitely an exciting time to be a Pakistani. We’ve got the new National AI Policy of 2025 and last year’s decision to invest Rs10 billion in tech ventures. Our geopolitical standing is miles better than it has been for a long time, with all the deals we’ve been making.  For the sheer capacity that Pakistan wants to build regarding AI usage, these datacenters are a welcome and necessary investment. But once again, the cost of maintenance for these datacenters will only go up as more and more get built. In a country where drinking water isn’t a guarantee, and stable electricity is even less of a commodity, perhaps it would be prudent to ask if this is even a good idea in the first place?...

Elon Musk’s X challenges India’s internet censorship rules Social media platform X said on Monday it plans to appeal an Indian court order that would allow over two million police officers nationwide to issue arbitrary takedown requests via a secretive online portal called the Sahyog. "We will appeal this order to defend free expression," X said in a post on the platform, in its first statement since the High Court of Karnataka ruled last week that there was no legal merit to the company's legal challenge to quash India's content removal mechanisms. "The Sahyog enables officers to order content removal based solely on allegations of "illegality," without judicial review or due process for the speakers, and threatens platforms with criminal liability for non-compliance," X said on Monday. X has locked horns with New Delhi in the past, equating the government's mechanisms with censorship. The gover...

Data centre fire disrupts South Korea’s digital infrastructure Hundreds of South Korean public services remained offline on Monday after a fire at a data centre disrupted government websites and exposed vulnerabilities in the country's digital infrastructure. Authorities said 62 government services had been restored out of about 647 systems affected by the fire which broke out during routine maintenance in a server room at the state-run National Information Resources Service in Daejeon on Friday. President Lee Jae Myung has apologized for the disruption, saying it was surprising the government had no better backup after similar government service outages in 2023. Organisations affected by the fire include Korea Customs, the National Police Agency and the National Fire Agency, according to the safety ministry. Some government websites like the safety ministr...

Moving Pakistan’s banking into the future The 23rd Future Banking Summit and Expo focused on the digital transformation of Pakistan’s banking space through easing digital banking for customers and merchants with cashless solutions, AI integration, and stronger cybersecurity. The innovation and ideas displayed at the event have the potential to modernise Pakistan’s digital banking infrastructure with secure, convenient, and efficient services, leading to streamlined experiences for customers, merchants and banking establishments. A cashless ecosystem Faisal Mahmood, head of Digital Public Infrastructure of Karandaaz, outlined the growth of automated teller machine (ATM) transactions and the increased use of point-of-sale (POS) machines since 2020. He said that there is “great adoption by the public” for the digital channels that banks offer, emphasising a need for banks to incentivise the usage of cashless alternatives, as Yahya Khan, Group Head and Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of ...

OpenAI unveils ChatGPT Pulse, a proactive daily feed for users OpenAI has introduced a new feature, ChatGPT Pulse, designed to provide users with a proactive daily feed of personalized updates. Launched in preview for Pro subscribers on mobile, Pulse compiles information overnight using context from users’ chats and optional app connections, such as Gmail and Google Calendar. Each morning, subscribers are presented with a digest of visual cards, which can be expanded into full conversations. Also Read: TikTok’s not just for dancing as 1 in 5 Americans now get their news from it OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman described the feature as his “favorite so far,” saying it shifts ChatGPT closer to the role of a personal assistant. Users can guide the feed by tapping a “curate” option to request specific updates, such as local event listings or hobby tips. Feedback tools, including thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons, refine future results, while users also have the option to clear their his...

Bugatti dethroned: BYD’s electric hypercar hits 496 km/h BYD’s luxury sub-brand Yangwang revealed that its U9 Xtreme hypercar had hit a blistering 496.22 km/h (308.4 mph) at Germany’s ATP Papenburg test track. Driven by Marc Basseng, the one-way run edged past Bugatti’s Chiron Super Sport 300+, which topped out at 490.48 km/h (304.77 mph). For more than two decades, Bugatti has defined the pinnacle of automotive engineering, the kind of engineering marvel that could push beyond 300 mph and leave rivals gasping. But the latest challenge didn’t come from Europe’s traditional luxury heartlands. It came from China. At first glance, it’s another “fastest car” headline. Look closer, and it’s a convergence of technology and geopolitics. From W16 to software and batteries The Bugatti Chiron’s quad-turbo, 8.0-liter W16 engine epitomized Europe’s combustion engineering. The Yangwang U9 Xtreme, by contrast, is entirely electric. It leverages BYD’s decades of investment in blade battery chem...

Pakistani roads get smarter, robots get handsy, and keyboards get a light diet Pakistan’s V-SenseDrive takes on road safety with AI Created using Gemini Road accidents are a daily threat in Pakistan’s chaotic traffic mix, but a new local project aims to change that. Researchers have unveiled V-SenseDrive, the country’s first privacy-preserving driver behavior dataset, built entirely from Pakistani roads. Instead of invasive face recordings, the dataset combines smartphone sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS) with road-facing video to capture three driving styles: normal, aggressive, and risky. Tested on everything from city streets to motorways, it mirrors the messy reality of local traffic. By structuring the data into raw, processed, and semantic layers, the project gives developers and policymakers tools to train ADAS systems, fleet safety platforms, and insurance models tailored to Pakistan’s driving culture. One step closer to Skynet Source: REUTERS We’ve already talked about...

TikTok’s not just for dancing as 1 in 5 Americans now get their news from it A growing share of Americans are turning to TikTok for news, with one in five adults now saying they regularly use the platform to stay informed – up sharply from just 3% in 2020, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis. Among TikTok users specifically, news consumption has risen steeply. PHOTO PEW RESEARCH TikTok, best known for its short-form videos and popularity among teenagers, has become a significant news source for younger adults. The survey found that 43% of adults under 30 now regularly get news on TikTok, compared with just 9% five years ago. Read More: Trump signs executive order supporting US-led TikTok takeover Adults aged 30 to 49 have also shifted in that direction: a quarter now report consuming news on the app, up from 2% in 2020. Usage is far lower among older age groups, with only 10% of adults aged 50 to 64 and 3% of those 65 and older saying the same. TikTok has be...

Meta to offer ad-free Facebook, Instagram subscriptions in UK Meta announced Friday that Facebook and Instagram users in the UK will be able to buy ad-free subscriptions, extending a model already in place in Europe, to comply with regulation. Starting in the coming weeks, UK-based users can opt out of personalised ads by paying a monthly fee of £2.99 ($4) on the web, or £3.99 via iOS and Android apps. The US tech giant said the move comes "in response to recent UK regulatory guidance," noting that the subscription model gives users a choice over whether to allow personalised ads. Read More: Meta’s new 'teen accounts' bring extra safety to Facebook, Messenger The UK price will be lower than what is offered in the European Union, where ad-free subscriptions start at 5.99 euros ($7) per month. Meta first announced its ad-free option in the EU at the end of 2023 to comply with tougher regulation intended to rein in big tech. The company has long profited from selling u...

AI slop, lab-grown skin, and the tech expo shaping tomorrow ITCN Asia 2025: a potential glimpse into Pakistan's future Photo Credits: Syed Alihasan Agha Karachi just hosted ITCN Asia 2025, and instead of the usual dry tech fair vibes, it felt like stepping into a mash-up of Silicon Valley ambition and local startup hustle. Picture AI that overlays onto NASA maps, VR headsets dropping you into surreal new worlds, and fintech founders arguing over who’s reinventing money the fastest. It was almost too much to keep up with. Read: ITCN Asia 2025: where AI crossed borders and I nearly got lost in the cloud Beyond the spectacle, the event showed how Pakistan’s IT and telecom industry is evolving, from homegrown startups trying to scale to the global stage to big names scouting fresh opportunities in the region. It wasn’t just about gadgets on display with the 300+ global brands making their appearances, but about where Pakistan sits in the tech race, and where we're headed next. Yo...

Microsoft suspends services to Israeli military unit over probe into monitoring of Palestinians Microsoft (MSFT.O) said on Thursday it has disabled some services used by an Israeli military unit after preliminary evidence supported a media investigation that reported mass surveillance of Palestinian phone calls. A joint investigation published in August by the Guardian and other media outlets found that an Israeli military agency was making use of Microsoft's Azure software to store countless recordings of mobile phone calls made by Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. That prompted an internal review by Microsoft. "We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a company blog. The review is ongoing, but details of the Israel Ministry of Defense's (IMOD) consumption of Azure storage capacity in the Netherlands and the use of AI services supported the Guardian's reporti...

SECP to access PSX surveillance tech The Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited (PSX) and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) have entered a strategic partnership to enhance oversight of the capital markets through a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The agreement, formalised at a ceremony at PSX on September 23, 2025, grants SECP direct access to PSX's New Surveillance System. According to a statement released on Thursday, the integration will allow SECP to conduct smarter, faster, and more secure market surveillance, leveraging the same advanced technology used by PSX. The collaboration is described as a major step in strengthening regulatory coordination and ensuring a fair, transparent market for all participants. The New Surveillance System, acquired by PSX from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, China, as a module of the New Trading System, was launched in May 2023 to upgrade PSX's technological capacity and functionality to bring it at par with global ...

Meta’s new 'teen accounts' bring extra safety to Facebook, Messenger Meta said Thursday it was activating so-called "teen accounts" with additional protections for adolescent Facebook and Messenger users worldwide, months after their deployment in major English-speaking countries. "We've placed hundreds of millions of teens in Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, and now we're expanding them to teens around the world on Facebook and Messenger," the US group said in a blog post. Meta's teen accounts, which offer additional security settings, content restrictions and parental controls for users aged 13 to 17, were first introduced on Instagram last year. Read More: Kojima's OD and AI's culturally incapability The company said in April that it had extended them across Facebook and the social network's Messenger private chat service in the US, Canada, Australia and Britain. Restrictions on Meta's teen accounts ar...

Kojima's OD and AI's culturally incapability AI has little concept of other cultures Source: REUTERS Much like people after COVID, AI is unable to pick up on social cues. Specifically, social cues and cultural contexts of non-Western societies when using it to translate another language.  Say you host someone at your house and ask them if they want chai, and then they (for whatever strange reason) say they don’t want any, you won’t just leave it at that, right? You’d ask if they want anything else. Probably tell them not to do takkalluf (formality) and just accept your hospitality, which is usually a decent move. But according to research released earlier this month, the AI would simply leave it at that. This research was done on the Iranian tradition of respect and hospitality: ‘ta’arof’, but you can imagine that if it can’t do one culture, it probably can’t do others either. And it’s not a question of the AI being impolite. A study showed that Llama 3 was extremely polite i...

Government partners with Huawei to train Pakistani youth in IT skills The Government of Pakistan, in partnership with Huawei and others, has announced plans to train youth of various ages in information technology skills. These partnerships with the private sector will facilitate, develop, and equip talented youth in the country with Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills, the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) said. This comes in an effort to facilitate the country’s transition to a digital-based economy and is followed closely by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication’s (MoITT) approval of the National AI Policy. According to the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), the Government of Pakistan (GoP) plans to train one million youth in conjunction with Huawei and other partners. An official from the MoITT said to APP, “If even one million youth earn an average of $10,000 annually, the economic impact would be massive.” Programs will target a range o...

Pakistani fintechs tap Saudi market Pakistani fintech companies are increasingly turning their eyes towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), lured by the vast opportunities offered under Riyadh's Vision 2030 digital transformation agenda and catalysed by the latest Pak-Saudi defence pact. Pakistan's growing IT sector has immense potential to become part of the broader strategic and defence ties with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the next level, said Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication. "Pakistan's IT sector is strengthening itself on various fronts to evolve into a key regional player and a data transshipment hub for various countries, including China and Central Asia," she said while speaking as the Chief Guest at the inaugural session of the 26th ITCN Asia on Tuesday. Money 20/20, a global fintech event recently held in Riyadh as part of the Vision 2030 economic plan to attract foreign investors, saw 15 Pakistani companies sh...

WhatsApp just made talking across languages way easier Meta Platforms on Tuesday said it is introducing a translation feature for its WhatsApp messaging service, aiming to ease cross‑language chats among its more than 3 billion users. The translations will initially be available in six languages on Android devices and 19 languages on iPhones, with more languages to follow. "Message translations were designed to protect the privacy of your chats. That's why translations occur on your device where WhatsApp cannot see them," Meta said in a blog. Users can long-press on a message and tap "Translate" to see any message in another language. The feature works for personal and group chats, as well as channel updates. Android users can also enable automatic translation for an entire chat thread so future messages are translated by default.

When Steam robs you, Konami bores you, and Doom smokes you out BlockBlasters wasn’t a game. It was a $150K crypto heist hiding on Steam Source: X (@rastalandTV) Steam’s latest disaster shows how fast “fun little indie” can turn into “crypto-draining nightmare.” The game was called BlockBlasters. It dropped on Steam in July looking like harmless retro fluff. But on August 30, a sneaky update laced with malware went live. The payload? Scripts that laughed at your antivirus, raided your browser, and looted your crypto wallets. By the time researchers caught on, the malware had drained over $150,000 from hundreds of players. The most brutal case? Latvian Twitch streamer Raivo “RastalandTV” Plavnieks. He’s battling stage-4 cancer and had raised money through streaming, leaning on the community to cover the crushing cost of his treatment. After downloading BlockBlasters during a live stream, everything changed. He watched $32,000 vanish, funds his followers had given to help him survive. V...

Nvidia to invest $100b in OpenAI, provide data center chips in major AI partnership Nvidia will invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and supply it with data center chips, the companies said on Monday, marking a tie-up between two of the highest-profile players in the global artificial intelligence race. The move underscores the increasingly overlapping interests of the various tech giants developing advanced AI systems. The deal gives Nvidia a financial stake in the most prominent AI company in the world, which is already an important customer. The investment gives OpenAI the cash and access it needs to buy advanced chips it needs in the first place to maintain its dominance in an increasingly competitive landscape. The deal will involve two separate but intertwined transactions, according to a person close to OpenAI. The startup will pay Nvidia in cash for chips, while Nvidia will invest in OpenAI for non-controlling shares, the person said. Read More: Samsung’s VR missile, autism as...

Oracle to secure US TikTok algorithm under White House-backed sale deal Tech giant Oracle is set to provide security for a US version of TikTok's algorithm, the White House said Monday, under a deal for the sale of the Chinese-owned app's American operations. The proposal moves TikTok's US operations into a new joint venture based in the United States, a senior White House official told reporters, adding that the entity would involve a "majority-American board of directors." Oracle, in turn, is expected to serve as a security provider. The agreement provides that a copy of TikTok's content recommendation algorithm be brought into the US joint venture system, the official said. Read More: Fox Corp could help lead U.S. group to buy TikTok operations "It's going to be fully inspected and retrained by the security provider on US user data, and then it's going to be operated by that US entity," the official added, speaking on condition of anonym...

Samsung’s VR missile, autism as evolution’s trade-off, and unlocking your brain years Samsung’s Project Moohan: The VR missile aimed squarely at Apple’s Vision Pro Image created using Gemini Samsung’s long-whispered Project Moohan is about to crash Apple’s Vision Pro party, and it’s bringing some serious firepower.  Launching globally on October 21 (preorders kick off on September 29), the premium headset features Qualcomm’s powerful Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chip and razor-sharp 1.3-inch Micro-OLED panels, producing a staggering 13.64 million pixels per eye, nearly two million more than Apple’s own crown jewel.  The visuals promise deeper colors and brighter worlds that could make the Quest 3 look like a relic. At a rumored $1,799–$2,999, Moohan undercuts Vision Pro’s $3,499 sticker shock while flexing specs way beyond Meta’s budget gear.  After two years in the shadows, Samsung’s play could redraw the XR battlefield and give Apple a real fight for premium VR dominance. Va...

New perovskite ‘camera’ could transform medical imaging Scientists in the US and China have developed the world’s first medical imaging camera built from perovskite crystals – a material better known for its role in solar panels. The new detector, designed at Northwestern University and Soochow University, captures individual gamma rays with unprecedented precision. Researchers say it could make nuclear medicine scans such as SPECT both cheaper and more accurate. Traditional scanners rely on cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) or sodium iodide detectors, which are either costly or produce fuzzier images. Perovskite technology, by contrast, is easier to manufacture, potentially lowering costs for hospitals while improving image quality. The advance, published in Nature Communications, could shorten scan times, reduce radiation exposure for patients, and make high-quality imaging accessible to more clinics worldwide. A Northwestern spinout, Actinia Inc., is already working to commercialise th...