The idea of Artificial Intelligence (AI’s) application in military immediately brings to our mind the notion of autonomous weapon systems. Discuss the non-lethal applications of AI technology in Indian defence forces. (200 words)
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IAS Parliament 7 years
KEY POINTS
· In popular consciousness, the idea of military AI immediately brings to our mind the notion of autonomous weapon systems (AWS) or “killer robots”.
· The controversies surrounding autonomous weapons, however, must not obscure the fact that like most other technologies, AI also has a number of non-lethal uses for militaries and especially for the Indian military.
Non-lethal applications of AI technology
· Logistics and supply chain management – An efficient logistics system lies at the heart of any well-functioning military.
· This is especially complicated for the Indian Armed Forces given the diverse environments and conditions they operate in.
· Substantial work has already been done in deploying AI for logistics and supply chain management in the civilian sector.
· It would, therefore, not require much effort to transfer the technology, knowledge and expertise already present in the civilian space to meet the military’s needs.
· AI-backed systems could go a long way in increasing efficiencies, reducing wastage and overall costs in the military’s logistics management.
· Cyber-operations – As cyber warfare becomes faster, more sophisticated and more dangerous, it becomes necessary to develop both offensive and defensive cyber-war capabilities.
· It has to protect both the military’s own assets and communication links, and to attack similar assets of opposing militaries.
· Specifically trained AI systems could actually prove to be far more efficient and effective than humans for such tasks.
· The scale and speed of the responses necessary in evolving cyber-operation domains make it unlikely that humans will be able to tackle evolving threats in an effective manner by themselves.
· Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) – Using AI for ISR tasks can take two different forms.
· Use of AI in unmanned vehicles – on air, land, or on under water. This includes increasingly ubiquitous drones but also unmanned ships and submersibles and ground vehicles.
· Such “intelligent” unmanned systems could be used for patrolling in harsh terrains and weather conditions, providing harbour protection, and allowing the deploying force to scout the battlefield or conflict zone with no danger to human soldiers.
· Data analysis and interpretation – An AI system could, for instance, be trained to pick out predetermined suspicious behaviour from the video footage of a surveillance drone, and thereby identify potential targets.
· Much of this work is currently done by humans, but the time taken and possible data under-analysed is immense. AI could do in a few hours what would have taken humans days to do, and in a significantly more efficient manner.
· This led the US to develop and deploy Project Maven, which analyses video footage from drones to identify potential threats in the US’ fight against the Islamic State (IS).
