The Rise Artificial Intellegence and Cyber Defence
iasparliament
December 26, 2017
What is the issue?
The rapid commercial diffusion of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) has been a critical feature of 2017.
Alongside, the fear that these technologies might pose an unprecedented threat to the future of humanity has also risen.
What is the current scenario in AI regulations?
In this era of rapid technological upheavels, the need for greater cyber regulations has been deeply felt.
A new set of international norms or “a cyber code of conduct” to better protect individuals, companies and nations is already doing the rounds.
Scientists and entrepreneurs such as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, have demanded that the United Nations ban killer robots (AI wepons).
But while collective agreements within and among nations are far away, the technological advance is likely to be relentless in 2018 and beyond.
Also, even as calls for preventing the militarisation of AI get louder, governments are relentlessly working to find and exploit new technologies.
Beyond mere physical threats, AI has the potential to disrupt established services and communication networks, and ideologically indoctrinate masses.
What are Influence Campaigns and Information Weaponisation?
While cyber threats to critical infrastructure has been known for a while, 2017 upended and highlighted its potential for psychological warfare.
“Influence campaigns” are ones that use AI aided marketing techniques to target individuals based upon their activities, interests, opinions, and values.
While such campaigns are largely employed for advertising and legal businesses, the allegations of Russian meddling into the US elections have highlighted its potential as a powerful political tool.
Sophisticated cyber campaigns can hence potentially influence public opinion by blending covert intelligence operations, state-funded media, third-party intermediaries, and paid social media users.
Such trends have been broadly called “weaponising information” as it is employed to attack the values and institutions that underpin free societies.
Also, Non-state actors too can employ these tools to wage ideological campaigns to establish and legitimise their narrative of hate.
What is “Information Statecraft”?
As the offensive use of the web has grown, some states have recognized the potential of cyber space and are building capabilities in this sphere.
Defence - China’s great internet wall is one such example, which combines data and the use of AI to rate the loyalty of its citizens to the state.
Russia has been talking about building an entirely alternative internet to the current one as it feels that it is very American centric.
Effectively, these are ways to limit and control internet access to domestic audiences for enhancing cyber defence.
But these programs have become excessively intrusive and undermined individual autonomy and enhance state authoritarianism.
Ironically, a few years ago, it was widely assumed that the internet would favour open societies and democracies and undermine authoritarian regimes.
Offense - Significantly, these countries are also building offensive capabilities to be able to conduct covert and overt cyber operations to influence outcomes.
Disinformation and deception has been part of statecraft throughout history and has been employed to undermine enemy governments and societies.
But the current trend, which is drubbed as “Information Statecraft”, stands out due to the expansive reach of the social media and the immense potential of big data.
What does India fare?
India is a highly diverse society that inhabits a chaotic democractic setup, which naturaly makes it very vulnerable to hostile cyber operations.
The fact that there is a massive and conscious push by the government towards degitisation makes this all the more significant.
The government has actively been seeking to access massive data on citizens for ensuring better tax revenues and services delevery.
But there is no public evidence of a coherent strategy for the strategic use of information for internal and external security.
Delhi needs to turn its attention in 2018 to creating significant domestic capabilities for information operations against threats at home and abroad.
As many state cyber programs have proved abusive, care should be taken to ensure that India’s designs are in full consonance with the rights of its citizens.
