Artificial intelligence (AI) should be viewed primarily as a productivity tool and an opportunity to create new employment rather than simply as a threat to jobs, speakers said at a discussion in the city on Saturday.
They, however, cautioned that Bangladesh could face significant employment disruptions if it fails to prepare its workforce for the rapid expansion of AI and other emerging technologies.
The discussion titled “AI & Democracy: Shaping the Future of Employment”, organised by BCAN, was held at the auditorium of the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB).
Imtiaz Mirza, executive director of BCAN, said Bangladesh had failed to take advantage of successive technological revolutions and was now facing another major transformation with AI.
He said the country also lacked the investment ecosystem needed to develop a semiconductor industry.
“The government should take initiatives to build an ecosystem for semiconductor investment and development,” he said.
Mr Mirza said AI had already displaced millions of programming-related jobs globally, but humans would continue to be needed to monitor, manage and supervise AI systems.
He described every crisis as a potential opportunity and said Bangladesh could turn the AI transition into an opportunity by developing the necessary skills and infrastructure.
Author and adviser to NICTF Maruf Mallick said Bangladesh needed to understand how AI would reshape employment and society rather than simply resist technological change.
He stressed the importance of preparing people and institutions for a future in which AI would increasingly influence economic activities and employment.
Presenting a paper virtually, Marzia Mithila, an architect and designer, said Bangladesh should aim to produce “AI managers” rather than remain merely AI consumers.
She urged the country to focus on designing the future, designing algorithms and designing democracy in an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
Rezaul Karim Rony, poet and thinker, said the country was now at a critical juncture and should use the AI transition to create a new generation of skilled workers instead of allowing technological disruption to deepen unemployment.
AI should be treated as a productivity tool rather than a substitute for, or competitor to, human workers, he said.
He said Bangladesh's challenge was therefore not simply to prevent AI from replacing jobs, but to ensure that workers were equipped to perform new tasks created by the technology.
He said the benefits of AI would depend on how effectively Bangladesh could combine technological advancement with creativity, adaptability, regulation and democratic institutions.
Rupam Razzaque, an IT professional and entrepreneur, said businesses should not necessarily seek to minimise employment through technology.
He said BD's biggest ICT related company currently has 1,200 employees and that the ambition should be to expand employment of a single entity to around 20,000.
Mozammel Hoque (Rebel Chowdhury), a software architect, said the fourth industrial revolution was already under way and AI was advancing at an unprecedented pace.
He said the amount of information that a person could gather over an entire lifetime centuries ago could now be processed or accessed within a single day.
“AI is still in its infancy,” he said, warning that future stages of AI development could have far greater implications for human employment.
He said artificial general intelligence (AGI), if developed to a sufficiently advanced level, could potentially replace many human functions, while artificial superintelligence (ASI) could eventually become capable of surpassing human intelligence.
However, he said the immediate challenge was already visible, as AI was increasingly affecting desk jobs and repetitive tasks.
“Repetitive work will be cut,” he said, while noting that current AI systems still lacked genuine innovation.
According to him, humans would continue to have a crucial role in innovation because innovation involves generating and evaluating multiple possible ideas before taking them into production.
He identified creativity as a key ingredient of innovation, stressing that creativity should not be understood merely as artistic or aesthetic ability.
“Every contribution is creativity,” he said, arguing that workers would need to develop the ability to think, create and adapt alongside AI.
He also stressed the importance of adaptability in the emerging labour market, saying intellectual strength alone would not be sufficient for survival in a rapidly changing technological environment.
Drawing on the principle of adaptation associated with Darwin's theory of evolution, he said those capable of adapting to changing conditions would be better positioned to survive and succeed.
Ronty Chowdhury, director of the cultural wing of BCAN, said Bangladesh currently lacked the necessary capacity, data infrastructure and policy framework to develop a competitive AI ecosystem.
He said the country needed to develop AI data centres along with the supporting energy infrastructure.
AI data centres require a huge and uninterrupted supply of electricity, he said, adding that Bangladesh currently relied heavily on conventional fuel-based energy but needed to move towards renewable energy to meet the growing power demand of AI infrastructure.
“The full ecosystem should be developed at the same time,” he said, noting that Bangladesh now had an opportunity to do so as the country was increasingly generating electricity from solar power.
He said appropriate policies could encourage investment in renewable energy and AI-related infrastructure.
According to him, international technology companies spend around US$1.0 billion to US$2.0 billion on data centres and related services for Bangladeshi consumers.
If the country could develop its own data-centre infrastructure, a significant portion of that expenditure could remain within the domestic economy.
He said Bangladesh would require around 250 megawatts of solar power, involving an estimated investment of Tk 30 billion, to support the development of AI-related data infrastructure.
A battery-based power system for AI data centres could require another Tk 100 billion, he said.
He stressed that AI data centres require uninterrupted electricity supply round the clock and therefore Bangladesh would need a reliable 24-hour power system supported by renewable energy and storage facilities.
