Is Bangladesh missing an opportunity?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the world, and Bangladesh stands at a crossroads. Will the nation embrace this revolution and reap its benefits, or will it be left behind?

Technology policymakers, investors and executives around the world have started rethinking the future of the AI industry after OpenAI launched a large language model (LLM) named ChatGPT in November 2022. ChatGPT displayed how advanced AI tools can think like a human to a certain extent. After OpenAI, Google and Microsoft also launched their own AI LLM tools. These AI tools have become proficient in text-to-text, image-to-text, text-to-image tasks, and day by day, their level of accuracy keeps getting better.

If you look at Boston Dynamics' robots, you will see how perfectly their AI-based robots can imitate any animal. See how realistic the movements of these robots are. It is certain that soon the use of AI technology will increase across the world. How long it will take Bangladesh to realise that the next technology revolution has begun? On March 7, India approved a $1.25 billion investment in AI projects, which includes developing computing infrastructure and supporting the development of LLMs, as reported by Reuters. The money will also be used to fund AI startups, as well as develop AI applications for the public sector. India's AI market is projected to reach $17 billion by 2027, growing at an annualised rate of 25-35 percent between 2024 and 2027, according to IT industry body Nasscom.

Will Bangladesh continue to import technology as usual, or will it take a leaf out of its neighbour's book and invest in developing its own comprehensive AI strategy?

A long-term plan is needed to tackle this new technology frontier, and for that, the relevant authorities in Bangladesh should get to preparations urgently. The first step is creating special allocations for research in universities and to promote research in higher education. A recent article by Prof Rokonuzzaman of North South University (NSU) sheds light on technology innovation and its growth. He believes that AI technology will open a very promising door for the world. Though AI research began in the 20th century, it faced a period of slow progress at the beginning of the 21st century before experiencing a surge in interest around the 2020s. At this point, AI has passed its chasm period, a chasm being the first stagnant phase in a technology's growing period when there is a lack of innovation. When any technology is in the chaos stage, it has no market value on a large scale. This period has to be passed by generating innovative ideas through extensive research. And after this period, any technology is made for the consumer market. It is evident at this point that AI technology will reach the consumer level very soon, and the sooner Bangladesh can capture this market, the more it will reap benefits from it.

Md Nurnobi Islam is a student of computer science and engineering at North South University (NSU).

Views expressed in this article are the author's own.

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