ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN ARMED FORCES- AN ANALYSIS
By
Maj Gen PK Mallick VSM, (Retd)
Introduction
Today is the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The current period of rapid,
simultaneous and systemic transformations driven by advances in science is reshaping
industries, blurring geographical boundaries, challenging existing regulatory frameworks
and even redefining what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the
software engine that drives the Fourth Industrial Revolution. AI is creating targeted
marketing, safer travel through self-driving cars, smarter weapons and new efficiencies
in manufacturing processes, supply chain management and agricultural production. It
holds the promise of solving some of the most pressing issues facing society, but also
presents challenges such as inscrutable “black box” algorithms, unethical use of data
and potential job displacement.
Artificial Intelligence are machine programs that can teach themselves by harnessing
High Power Computing(HPC) and big data and eventually mimic how the human brain
thinks, supports and enables nearly every sector of the modern economy. Corporations
and governments are fiercely competing because whoever is the frontrunner in AI
research and applications will accrue the highest profits in this fast growing market and
gain a military technological edge. AI itself will not manifest just as a weapon. It is an
enabler that can support a broad spectrum of technologies.
1
These technologies are starting to have a transformative effect on defence capability. AI
will have digital, physical and political security implications, expanding existing threats,
introducing new threats and changing the character of threats and of war. These
changes could include the automation of social engineering attacks, vulnerability
discovery, influence campaigns, terrorist repurposing of commercial AI systems,
increased scale of attacks, and manipulation of information availability.
1
Manju Bansal, “AI Is the New Black,” MIT Technology Review, February 27,2017
