Why the “Gemini Is Useless” Argument Is Technically Weak
The online reaction captured a real technical debate, but it also mixed several different products into one emotional verdict. Some developers argued that Claude performs better for their workflows, criticised Google’s Antigravity agentic-development environment, objected to model availability and rate limits, and distinguished consumer subscriptions from API access. Others correctly responded that a free Gemini plan could still be more than adequate for students who cannot afford subscriptions to Claude, Codex or another commercial system.
Both experiences can be true because an AI product is not universally “best” or “useless.” A professional developer evaluating an agentic coding harness, API quota and tool-calling reliability is solving a different problem from an engineering student summarising lectures, interrogating a textbook, preparing flashcards, conducting source-backed research or rehearsing a presentation. Gemini’s consumer subscription, the Gemini developer API and any third-party or Google-built coding harness have different quotas, interfaces and intended use cases. Dissatisfaction with one harness does not automatically erase the educational value of the underlying subscription.
More importantly, dragging Imran Khan or Shehbaz Sharif into an argument over model routing, API limits or coding-agent performance contributes nothing to the technical assessment. Google’s involvement in Pakistan crosses political administrations, and its products must be assessed by capability, cost, privacy, learning outcomes and export value. A development does not become worthless because a disliked government inaugurated it, just as it does not become revolutionary because a prime minister praised it.
This is precisely why Pakistan must learn to use workplace artificial intelligence without becoming merely an AI consumer. The national objective cannot be to produce millions of young people who know how to ask a chatbot for an essay. It must be to produce engineers, designers, researchers, founders and exporters who use AI to shorten development cycles while retaining mathematics, writing, verification, programming and independent judgment.
Chromebook Manufacturing Is the More Important Industrial Story
The Islamabad office did not create Pakistan’s Chromebook initiative overnight. Google, Tech Valley, Allied and the National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation launched Pakistan’s first Chromebook assembly line at NRTC’s Haripur facility in November 2025. The publicly announced ambition was to assemble as many as 500,000 Chromebooks by 2026, improve device affordability, create employment and establish a pathway toward hardware exports. The programme and its production target were described by Tech Valley Pakistan.
Now the hard questions begin. How many units have actually been assembled? How much local value is added beyond imported components and final assembly? How many devices have reached Pakistani schools? How many have been exported, to which markets, and for how much foreign exchange? How many permanent technical jobs have been created? Has supplier localisation begun? These are the measurements that separate industrial policy from screwdriver assembly and export ambition from a ribbon-cutting photograph.
Pakistan has seen similar excitement around proposed technology manufacturing before, which is why the broader debate over whether international-device assembly represents hype or a genuine industrial revolution remains relevant. Hardware production becomes strategically meaningful when it creates local component suppliers, testing capability, firmware expertise, repair ecosystems, quality certification, design ownership and repeatable exports.
The $30 Billion Target Is an Ambition, Not the Current Reality
Pakistan Software Export Board figures place IT and IT-enabled services exports at a record $3.8 billion in FY2024–25. Against that completed-year baseline, a $30 billion target represents an increase of approximately 7.9 times. The comparison is not perfectly like-for-like if future official targets incorporate a wider range of digital and hardware exports, but it demonstrates the scale of the challenge. The PSEB’s reported export figure shows that Pakistan has momentum; it does not show that the destination is close.
