Military applications of AI have become a priority for China’s PLA. For all practical purposes, China considers AI to be vital for leveraging its interests and reflect its defence preparedness.
The recently organised global conference by the Netherlands and South Korea at the Hague for creating a roadmap on the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the military domain has shared concerns with members of the international community. It was indicated that the perils of military applications of AI needed to be addressed collectively. In addition to India, China, Germany, the US and the UK, among others, deliberated on all the significant areas and attempted for the first time to come up with a systematic plan on addressing the threats. The focus of all the discussions was mainly on coming up with a set of international agreed norms, boundaries and ethical standards for the use of AI in military matters.
There is a growing realisation that the military application of AI has become a global issue. The probable deployment of AI in armed conflicts is seemingly becoming an area of major concern. It is essential to explore advances in AI and machine learning models and also make an attempt to understand their limitations, and the possibilities of building a human-machine team. At the heart of these topics is the element of decision making: Who will be tasked to decide? Humans or the algorithm? These are the major complex areas where there is an urgent necessity to evolve consensus.
Over the years, advancements in digital technology have transformed everything across the global spectrum. It must be emphasised that the same tools could be used to make the military smarter. It is certain that an AI-powered weapons system could possibly make the military take decisions faster and be more efficient in a warzone. But such systems might pose serious risks and dangers for civilians as the same technology used to save a particular group could also be used to target it. Whether these so-called intelligent systems could be biased forms a major part of the debate.
How to remove the bias from AI systems remains part of the challenge. It would be too difficult for these AI machines to make choices better or balanced. The ongoing research and development in AI have been making an effort in addressing some of these pertinent issues. The researchers have resorted to “explainability”. Explainable AI seeks to address lack of information around how decisions are made. This in turn helps remove biases and make the algorithm fairer.
Military applications of AI have become a major part of the debate in the current context. The use of AI has made tremendous progress in both capability and availability. The military needs to keep pace with these developments in order to maintain security and gain a technological edge. With such advancements, AI will be the force multiplier for the military without adding to the numbers or the size of the military.
It must be pointed out that a lot of progress has been made in recent times in the field of AI. One such advancement is in the field of natural language processing in which humans are able to use typical grammar and syntax to communicate with machines rather than having to input code. Remarkable progress has been made in the area of computer vision with new techniques for image and video analysis. In addition to all this, there have been advancements in the use of AI for decision making and autonomous systems.
The US military has been using AI for many years. China has been intensifying all its efforts in harnessing the potential of military applications of AI. China is making a rigorous attempt to use AI for performing increasingly complicated tasks and decrease the need for human input. It seems China has been successful in using AI for combat simulation. AI is being given a greater push by China where PLA can get benefitted in a number of areas including in warfare systems, strategic decision making, data processing, target recognition, threat monitoring, cybersecurity and disaster relief.
Military applications of AI have become a priority for China’s PLA. For all practical purposes, China considers AI to be vital for leveraging its interests and reflect its defence preparedness. How AI is unfolding in China, where every aspect of military work, from planning operations to transporting troops, from training personnel to providing them with medical care is being perceived as a risk by the rest of the world in general and India in particular.
India would require to strengthen its research and development in the field of AI and keep the option open for the dual use nature of the technology. If India aspires to become completely digital, then there will be more reasons for enhancing its AI capabilities. India shall also be actively participating in all the deliberations on AI to address the challenges emanating from the military application of AI and how there could be a global consensus on the probable protocols and ethical standards.
Dr Arvind Kumar is Professor at School of International Studies (SIS), JNU, New Delhi.