LAHORE: Punjab government has approved the establishment of a locally hosted artificial intelligence (AI) platform under the proposed Government GPU Cloud Project, aiming to modernise public administration and strengthen indigenous technological capabilities.
The initiative, approved by the provincial government, is expected to enable the hosting and training of large language models (LLMs) within Punjab for the first time, reducing reliance on foreign infrastructure and facilitating the development of AI-powered public services.
Officials said the project would also support Urdu and other regional languages, while secure AI sandboxes would be provided to government departments and universities to allow testing and development of AI applications in a protected environment.
The decision comes as governments worldwide increasingly turn to AI-driven systems to improve service delivery, automate administrative processes and enhance citizen engagement.
According to officials familiar with the project, early pilot programmes involving voice-based interfaces and smart search systems have yielded promising results, paving the way for broader implementation across public institutions.
Authorities have also highlighted concerns over the transfer of sensitive government data to foreign cloud platforms, describing data sovereignty and cybersecurity as key considerations behind the initiative. They noted that the absence of modern graphics processing unit (GPU) infrastructure had long remained a major hurdle in deploying advanced AI systems locally.
Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, currently delivers public services in more than 50 sectors to over 130 million residents, while more than one million government employees are engaged across the public sector.
The approval of the GPU cloud project marks one of Punjab’s most ambitious attempts to integrate AI into governance, amid a growing national focus on digitisation and technology-led public sector reforms.
