The Asian Age

Govt sets up Artificial Intelligen­ce task force

Panel to develop AI warfare capabiliti­es

- SANJIB KR BARUAH

With Artificial Intelligen­ce ( AI) expected to be the harbinger of the next big revolution in military technology worldwide, a 17- member high level task force on AI, set up by India’s Defence Ministry in early February, is preparing the country’s future AI roadmap for developmen­t of both defensive and offensive warfare capabiliti­es.

The AI task force has already met twice — on February 10 and on April 28 — and has been told by the government to submit its first report within three months.

Dr Ajay Kumar, secretary ( panel production), defence ministry said, “The world is moving towards an artificial intelligen­ce-driven ecosystem. India is also taking necessary steps to prepare our defence forces for the war of the future.

The task force has been set up to prepare a roadmap for the future.”

The 17- member panel is chaired by C Chandrasek­haran, chairman, Tata Sons, and besides the National Cyber Security Coordinato­r Gulshan Rai as a member, it has representa­tions from the Army, Navy Air Force, BEL, DRDO, ISRO, Atomic Energy Commission, selected

IITs, Finance Ministry and a few business groups.

On the inclusion of the non- government­al entities in the panel, the secretary said that at present most of the advanced research and developmen­t on AI are taking place in the private sector and the academia.

Moreover, with India having a strong IT industry and a big talent pool of engineers, these are advantages which need to be leveraged, Mr Kumar added.

The focus areas would be developmen­t of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems ( including drones, autonomous machine guns, tanks, fighter, bombers, cruise missiles, ships, submarines); unmanned surveillan­ce ( including drone swarms, perimeter defence etc); Intelligen­ce and reconnaiss­ance ( including facial recognitio­n, satellite imagery, object and pattern recognitio­n) besides simulated war game and training, cyber security, and aerospace security.

What is lending an air of urgency to the effort is that the panel has to make recommenda­tions for request for informatio­n ( RFI) proposals that will be floated in the next two years on the needed AI capabiliti­es for India in general and in the military weapons context in particular.

This is to be done after also studying the use of AI in countries like US, China, Israel, Japan, Germany, and Russia that have already taken giant strides in the field of artificial intelligen­ce.

Among other aims, the goals of the AI task force include establishm­ent of tactical deterrence, to visualise the potential transforma­tive weaponry of the future and to keep a check on nonstate actors including combating terrorists.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India