When it comes to potential, the sky is the limit for Pakistanis. While the entire world is obsessing over artificial intelligence (AI) avatars of themselves, an artist from a remote village in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province is making headlines for using cutting-edge technology to visualize the life of people in the lost civilization of Mohenjo Daro.
Rehmatullah Mirbahar, a computer operator at the Thatta district health department who used websites and YouTube tutorials to teach himself how to create art using AI tools, was surprised to witness his art and images of Mohenjo Daro receiving such an overwhelmingly positive response.
Spending three months learning AI, the 34-year-old was inspired to visualize the ancient city of Mohenjo Daro and its people. From photography in the ruins of the lost city, and his own knowledge learn about the area’s historical architecture, culture, and religion.
Speaking to Arab News, Mirbahar told, “When I first created these images, I did not upload them because I didn’t think people would like them. But then I decided to upload them and I can’t believe how they got viral. The response had been great. There have been calls from Germany, calls from the United States, I got calls from India as well,” while sitting at his computer in a small room at his office building in Makli.
According to Mirbahar, artificial intelligence was an ideal choice for the project because it could produce results based on available online data about a place or its people, and where it didn’t match reality, a human mind could intervene.
“Whatever came to my mind about Mohenjo Daro, I reimagined [all of that] through AI. It gives fifty or sixty percent results based on the data it has and [therefore] it needs modification … [We have to look] at how the faces of people appear, we have to fix their faces, have to change their colors, and the rest of the modifications are done with the help of AI,” the creator detailed.
“Many people,” according to the artist, “said ‘there should be a river that flowed here,’ ‘there should be greenery there,’ so, in future, I will update this to Mohenjo Daro version two. I will fix the mistakes being pointed out in this version,” Mirbahar said.
Mirbahar giggled as he remembered how his family scolded him nearly two decades ago for buying a computer, something they believed was a waste of money. “My family scolded me a lot [saying] what are you doing, you have done wasteful spending,” he said.
“But whatever I am today is because of this computer, and my family members are also happy,” the artist added.
For his next projects, Mirbahar plans to visualize the ancient seaside city — from where historians believe the Arab general Muhammad Bin Qasim entered Sindh in the 8th century AD — of Banbhore. He also plans to reimagine life in Makli and its ancient cemetery of the most powerful dynasties between the 14th and 18th centuries, and Taxila; the capital city of ancient Gandhara, founded around 1000 BCE.
“I am working on civilizations outside Pakistan too,” he said. “In the future, all these will [be reimagined with AI].”
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