The AI debate
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly considered as the most transformative human invention. According to Kai-Fu Lee, a Taiwanese AI expert and author of ‘AI Superpowers’, AI rivals the impact of…
Three paths to power
HOW have political forces opposed to incumbent regimes managed to find their way (back) into political power? Pakistan’s history provides us with quite a few examples and a number of…
Pythagoras and the holy dip
RELIGIOUS beliefs and science have coexisted for centuries. Science and superstition can also find a way to trudge along together. A brilliant scientist may not tread the path that has…
The DeepSeek disruption
In September 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared, “Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind. It comes with colossal opportunities but also threats that…
Is it time for basic income in Pakistan?
Social assistance is everywhere conditional, and in Pakistan it is no different. Either it comes with behavioural strings attached — ‘do this and we’ll help you, don’t and we won’t’…
Loss of freedom
It is said that those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. The story that has been enacted in Pakistan in the recent past stands out because…
A malignant appeasement
Adolf Hitler destroyed the first German democracy, the Weimar Republic (1918-33) and twelve years later destroyed Germany itself. Weimar has since become like the palantir in ‘The Lord of the…
A big transition
IT is hard to imagine how someone changes the course of their life — more so when that person is a top jihadist leader on the world’s most-wanted terrorist lists…
Et tu, Maryam?
HOW much should we know about Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s health? As a public official, should her health be up for the media’s scrutiny? The media dictates so; the…
IMF and provincial governments
Three provincial chief ministers from three competing political parties – Punjab (PML-N), Sindh (PPP) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (PTI) — are vying with each other to deliver more to their people…
