Govt working on applications of AI for military use: Nirmala

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said the government was serious about introducing applications of artificial intelligence (AI) for defence forces and called for building adequate infrastructure for its use.

Sitharaman said AI can be used in a range of areas including guarding the country's borders and securing outer space.

She was speaking at a workshop of stakeholders involved in putting in place a framework for use of artificial intelligence by the defence forces.

Sitharaman said applications of AI can be effective for aerial, land based and naval platforms besides using it to monitor any sort of chemical and nuclear warfare.

In February, the government had set up a high-powered task force headed by Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran to recommend a framework for applications of AI in defence forces.

"The task force should be able to tell us what is it that will encourage the use of the AI in defence forces. The challenges identified is the lack of infrastructure to enable the use of AI. I would place cyber, nuclear and space high on this agenda," she said.

The task force is examining peaceful and commercial use of AI and will visualise developing transformative weaponry of future.

It is also examining ways to use AI to check activities of non-state actors as well as to develop an intelligent robotic systems for military use.

Officials said the task force is studying use of AI by other leading countries including the US, China, Japan, Germany, Russia and will recommend specific measures for its applications for the armed forces.

They said it will also make broad recommendations to make India a significant power of AI in defence, specifically in the area of aviation, naval, land systems, cyber, nuclear, and biological warfare.