Technological frontiers are now more consequential than the geographic leverage. The real question is not whether artificial intelligence will redefine power, but who will shape its trajectory — and under what principles.
By Ahmed Fawad Farooq
In the first week of February this year, the skyline of Lahore was seen dotted with a plethora of colourfull kites, after a hiatus of almost two decades. The much-awaited official Basant festivity returned to the mega cultural metropolis as an officially-sanctioned three-day event, which had been suspended in 2007, largely due to safety hazards. Though the government remained upbeat from the announcement to the celebration of the gala, yet the masses enthusiasm was at the peak, and the atmosphere filled the air with spring just round the corner.
As Punjab begins to experience a long-awaited revival of cultural energy — its public spaces filling, creative industries reawakening, and cultural festivals returning — another transformation, quieter yet far more consequential, is taking shape beneath the surface.
The foundations of an Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) ecosystem have started to grip the entire region. Data centres are springing from barren lands, marking a shift towards a digital future. Governments are engaged with global chipmakers and cloud service providers for the infrastructure required for an AI-driven economy. Executives are talking about consistent power supply, semiconductor access, cooling systems, and resilient power grids. It is not merely a technological shift, but a structural transformation. This is going to redefine the economic priorities, industrial strategies, and global positioning of the region for decades to come.
“Systems capable of operating across domains at human or even superhuman levels could emerge within five to ten years, with its projection reshaping the policy horizon. Five years span signals a political cycle; ten is briefer than the lifespan of the most of the infrastructure projects. If Artificial General Intelligence arrives within this decade, governance cannot afford the luxury of yesterday’s tempo,” says Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis.
February 2026 offered a telling juxtaposition. In Islamabad, Pakistan hosted Indus AI Week, which convened officials, entrepreneurs, academics and young developers under one roof. It reflected genuine momentum rather than ceremonial rhetoric. For a country intent on seeking confidence in its digital trajectory, such forums are more than symbolic, signalling coordination, ambition and belief in a technological future.
Days later, India hosted an AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, and the contrast was striking. It was not just a mega event; it was a geopolitical statement of India too. The event attracted global technology chiefs, multilateral lenders and AI executives including Sam Altman and Demis Hassabis. The icing on the cake was international media coverage that framed India’s push to evolve from an AI consumer into a hub for capital, compute infrastructure and strategic influence.
At the technology frontier, AI is no longer an abstract code. It is physical. Models run on compute; compute runs on electricity, electricity depends on stable grids, cooling systems, land, fibre connectivity and predictable regulations. In this emerging industrial cycle, megawatts matter as much as algorithms.
As the AI edges towards an AGI era, infrastructure is fast becoming the hub of technological sovereignty. Nations that host hyperscale computing will set the standards, shape safety regimes and capture disproportionate economic gains. On the contrary, those who lack such foundations may find themselves dependent, able to deploy advanced systems, but unable to shape their evolution.
The lesson is loud and clear. The race is no longer only about building the most advanced model. It is about aligning energy policy, industrial strategy, talent development and regulatory certainty quickly enough to host the next generation of compute.
Yet capability is only half the story.
Hassabis’s AGI timeline offers a more uncomfortable conversation. If machines with broadly general reasoning capabilities emerge within this decade, the consequences will not be gradual. Labour markets could lurch, rather than adapt. The tools of misinformation and cyber manipulation may grow both cheaper and more potent. Scientific discoveries might accelerate beyond the capacity of institutions to absorb them responsibly. And, the economic spoils may accrue to a small cluster of dominant platforms
This is not an argument against innovation. It is a case of urgency and preparation.
Global summits and joint declarations are useful. They broadcast recognition of shared stakes. But signals are not safeguards. What the AI era demands is a durable governance architecture; shared standards for testing high-capability systems before deployment, trusted mechanisms for reporting failures and unintended harms, and across border cooperation to mitigate misuse risks. It also calls for clear accountability when AI shapes healthcare, agriculture, warfare, financer, space, or critical infrastructure. Without such architecture, technology speed will continue to outstrip political capacity. While reactionary regulations for the AGI governance will prove to be brittle.
The embedded AI transition has a social reckoning too. If advanced systems unlock extraordinary productivity, the gains must not remain confined to the top. The history of technological revolutions is instructive; abundance without distribution breeds political and economic instability.
Workforce transition must move as a policy priority. Reskilling needs to funding and scale. Education systems must adapt faster. Social safety nets must evolve. A serious discussion is needed on how to manage fiscal tools and extreme concentration of AI-driven profits. A calibrated windfall mechanism must be in place without stifling innovation. It is about preserving social cohesion in the face of asymmetric economic returns.
The purpose of AI and AGI must focus on widening opportunities for human beings, and not fracture the societies it aims to advance. For Pakistan, the implications are direct. Indus AI Week demonstrated awareness, but awareness alone is not a strategy. The country’s youth population is an asset. Demography, however, is potential only, and converting this potential into a national advantage requires a coherent policy and institutional scaffolding.
AI must be treated as strategic infrastructure, not a peripheral sector. Energy planning should factor in data centre demand. Startups and researchers must have a predictable access to compute. Regulatory processes must be clear and consistent. The state should be an informed buyer of AI solutions in health, agriculture, education and governance. Credibility will be earned through execution, not announcements or statements.
At the same time, a baseline framework for safe and trusted AI deployment must be set early. Governance credibility will weigh as heavy as growth ambition. In a world where cross-border digital systems affect domestic realities, a regulatory vacuum is vulnerability, not neutrality.
The deeper shift extends beyond South Asia borders. Technological frontiers are now more consequential than the geographic leverage. The real question is not whether AI will redefine power, but who will shape its trajectory — and under what principles.
If Demis Hassabis’s AGI timelines hold, the world faces choices that cannot be improvised. Mechanisms for oversight, coordination and social safeguards must be developed before scale is reached. Governance after deployment will be governance under relentless pressure.
As Lahore celebrated Basant, with kites soaring into a bright blue sky; the real renewal carried more symbolism. But the more consequential renewal is taking place in server rooms and policy chambers. This is not a moment for spectacle; it calls for a disciplined statecraft.
The AGI decade is approaching fast, and whether it becomes an era of shared human progress or concentrated technological power will hinge on today’s decisions — and on whether leaders are willing to match ambition with responsibility and accountability. – The write is Advisor on AI Strategy and Technology Policy in Emerging Markets. He can be reached via a.fawad99@gmail.com
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