Pakistan Joins China in World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO)

by Riaz Haq

Jul 20

On July 16 in Shanghai, 29 countries, including China, Pakistan and Russia, signed the founding agreement of WAICO, World AI Cooperation Organization.  Every BRICS founding member is in, except India. This agreement follows the launch of the US-led Pax Silica, a 24-member coalition, including India, which is designed to counter China's AI efforts. The stated goal of both these competing groups is to provide global governance, including building guardrails and setting standards, for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. 

US-China AI Competition


The announcement of WAICO coincided with the launch of Kimi K3 by Chinese startup Moonshot AI.  Kimi K3 is the largest open-weight AI model ever built, its full weights free for the world to download from July 27.  Cheaper open-source AI models like Kimi K3 pose a serious threat to U.S. proprietary models. By offering 80-90% of the capability at a fraction of the cost or for free, they are squeezing the premium pricing strategies of domestic leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Open-source AI models are a game-changer for developing nations like Pakistan, providing affordable, customizable technology without relying on expensive proprietary licenses or restrictive API models. Such models, like the ones offered by Chinese companies, empower governments and local developers to build "sovereign AI" tailored to regional languages, cultural contexts, and infrastructure limits, bypassing the need for massive data centers and reliance on foreign powers. 
Top Global AI Talent. Marco Polo AI Talent Tracker

Companies, including US-based firms, are rapidly adopting AI cost-saving measures. For example, Airbnb relies on Alibaba’s Qwen model, startups like Lindy have transitioned from Anthropic to DeepSeek, and DoorDash has employed Moonshot AI for specific workflows. Overall, Chinese open-source options now account for over 40% of Hugging Face AI community and 80% of open-source developer usage globally.

Open-source AI models—which are roughly 8 to 10 times cheaper to run than proprietary ones—are rapidly closing the reasoning and contextual intelligence gap with frontier models like Anthropic's Claude.  However, open source models shift the responsibility of infrastructure maintenance and security to the user.

The people of Chinese PRC origin account for 47% of the top 20% AI talent in the world based on undergraduate degree, according to a survey.  Americans make up 18%, Europeans 12% and Indians 5% of the global AI researchers. In terms of the countries they serve, 57% of them work in the United States, 12% in China, 8% in the UK, 4% each in France and Germany and 3% in Canada as of 2022. While the US still has the lion's share of the top talent, its share has declined from 65% in 2019 to 57% in 2022. Marco Polo talent tracker lists Pakistan among a dozen countries for top AI talent in Asia. 

More than half (15 out 25) of the institutions (companies and universities) where the top AI researchers work are located in the United States, while 6 are in China. The remaining four are in the UK, Switzerland, Singapore and Canada, according to Marco Polo Global AI Talent Tracker. 

Related Links:

Load Previous Comments

  • Riaz Haq

    . [1, 2]
    Key Urdu and Multilingual AI Platforms for Farmers
    • Kissan Dost Bashir: Launched by Telenor Pakistan via its Khushaal Watan platform, this is a 24/7 Urdu conversational voice bot available by dialing 7272 or visiting 7272.pk. It provides real-time mandi (market) rates, weather advisories, and livestock guidance. [1]
    • Savera: Developed by Syngenta through the Cropwise Grower app, Savera is an AI-powered farming advisor that understands regional languages including Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, and Siraiki to help with crop care and pest management. [1]
    • KissanBot: Built by Concave AGRI, KissanBot offers context-aware text and speech answers in Urdu covering major crops like wheat, rice, and maize using updates from provincial agriculture databases. Learn more at Concave AGRI KissanBot. [1, 2]
    • Urdu AI / Urdu AI Dost: A grassroots initiative turning artificial intelligence into practical learning for rural communities, farmers, and students across Pakistan. Explore their impact and resources at Urdu AI Impact. [1, 2]

    Oct 10

  • Riaz Haq

    Pakistan’s Artificial Intelligence Warfare – The Diplomat

    Last year, Pakistan unveiled its National Artificial Intelligence Policy 2025 to regulate AI usage. Pakistan’s military forces have already deployed AI to enhance their capabilities through research units, such as the Army Center of Emerging Technologies and the Pakistan Air Force-run Center for Artificial Intelligence and Computing (CENTAIC). 

    Pakistan has also unveiled a gamut of AI-enabled military weapons, including equipment manufactured by the state-owned Global Industrial & Defense Solutions (GIDS). These include unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), such as Shahpar-II,and the Spider Anti-UAV system. Pakistan and India used numerous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the 2025 clashes, with Islamabad deploying YIHA-III drones manufactured by the Turkish defense contractor Baykar in addition to Shahpar-II. 

     

    ————-

     

    Military sources reveal that Pakistan is also close to deploying robots. “Law enforcement authorities already have robots in bomb disposal units. Robots are also performing reconnaissance tasks, including in border areas. Now we are working on using robots to lead clearance operations, along with transporting ammunition and supplies in military operations in [Khyber] Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan,” said a senior officer.

    The security agencies have already run drills with Chinese robotic wolves. There are plans to produce similar machines indigenously, as well as humanoid and bipedal robots.

    “To keep pace with India, and to nullify terrorist groups, we are always integrating new technologies in military and law enforcement agencies. However, the biggest challenge is developing our capacity due to the lack of resources and the economic challenges,” Lieutenant General Talat Masood, a former secretary of Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense Production, told The Diplomat. In this regard, Pakistan continues to benefit from Chinese architectural support for CENTAIC. Beijing is also helping Islamabad use facial recognition technology, as Pakistani security agencies gradually expand its deployment to sensitive areas, including border checkpoints and terror hotspots.

    Along with fortifying security capacities, however, the Pakistani state is also using these AI-powered technologies to maintain the military establishment’s stranglehold and quell any regional or political dissent. The Diplomat has learned that the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), is allocating resources for “narrative building.” In addition to producing various forms of media, the ISPR also employs tech professionals to engage in countering what the establishment deems to be “anti-state propaganda,” a misnomer for critiques of the armed forces, the country’s military leadership, and their policies. 

    ————

    “A good chunk of money is going into algorithmic filtering and monitoring, and tools are being used to erase social media anonymity and target individuals accordingly. Many professionals in the IT sector and the media industry are working on these projects,” revealed a senior digital media professional working at one of Pakistan’s largest media houses. 

    Oct 28

  • Riaz Haq

    Foreign artificial intelligence systems present a multi-layered threat to Pakistan, spanning cultural erosion, economic dependency, security challenges, and cyber risks. [1, 2, 3]
    Cultural and Identity Concerns
    • Erosion of Local Values: Federal IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja warned that foreign-developed large language models (such as ChatGPT) reflect external cultural assumptions—likening their output to the perspective of a young person in the West—which risks reshaping the worldviews of Pakistan's youth, who make up roughly two-thirds of the population. [1]
    • Marginalization of Languages and Heritage: Reliance on Western or external AI stacks threatens local languages (like Urdu and regional dialects), religious norms, and indigenous social frameworks. [1, 2, 3]
    Geopolitical and Strategic Risks
    • Control and Data Sovereignty: Pakistan is caught in the crossfire of a global AI ecosystem race between Western powers and China. Adopting foreign models forces the country to inherit external regulatory assumptions, privacy gaps, and compliance issues that conflict with local laws. [1]
    • Exclusion from Global Governance: Developing nations have largely been sidelined in setting international AI governance standards, deepening global digital and economic inequalities. [1]
    Security and Terrorism Multipliers
    • Militant Misuse: Research published by organizations like Anthropic highlights that AI lowers the barrier for automated coding, surveillance, and targeting recommendations. In Pakistan, militant groups such as the Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) and cross-border actors risk using AI tools for propaganda, drone operations, and enhanced target selection. [1]
    • Disinformation and Synthetic Media: AI-generated deepfakes and fake media pose acute challenges to democratic governance and social cohesion, particularly amplified during regional geopolitical tensions (such as skirmishes with India). [1]
    Cyber and Financial Infrastructure Threats
    • AI-Enabled Cyberattacks: Pakistan's National Cyber Emergency Response Team (National CERT) issued Advisory No. 26 warning of AI-driven cyber threats targeting financial institutions, digital payment systems, capital markets, and critical infrastructure (oil, gas, power, and water grids). [1]
    • Automated Exploitation: Threat actors use AI to scale credential theft, social engineering, and automated reconnaissance against vulnerable digital networks. [1]
    Countermeasures and Domestic Response
    • Indigenization Efforts: Pakistan is working on local initiatives, such as the government-backed BuraqAI language model announced at the Global AI & Digital Summit 2026, to process Urdu and regional languages using local computing infrastructure. [1]
    • Policy Frameworks: The government is rolling out national data governance policies, personal data protection legislation, and updates to the National Artificial Intelligence Policy 2025 and National Cyber Security Policy to foster local compute capacity and human oversight. [1, 2]

    5 hours ago