N Chandrasekaran Task force constituted to study AI application in military

The Ministry of Defence (Department of Defence Production) constituted a 17 member task force headed by Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran to study use and application of artificial intelligence (AI) in military.
The task force will study the whole gamut of issues surrounding strategic implications of AI in national security perspective, in global context.

Members

The task force comprises National Cyber Security Coordinator Gulshan Rai, representatives from Indian Army, Navy and Airforce, chairman of Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), representatives from ISRO, Atomic Energy Commission and defence ministry. It also includes representation from academic institutes such as IISc-Bengaluru, and IIT Mumbai and Chennai.

Background

Experts believe that AI has potential to provide military superiority apart from driving technology-driven economic growth. The future progress of AI has potential to have transformative impact on national security. It is also seen that AI is essentially dual use technology i.e. it can fuel technology driven economic growth and also has potential to provide military superiority. India has a strong talent pool of engineers which are advantages which need to be leveraged.

Artificial intelligence

AI is branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans. In contrast to normal hardware and software, AI enables a machine to perceive (i.e. to think) and respond to its changing environment.

Month: Current Affairs - February, 2018