US and India launch talks about military AI

WASHINGTON — The U.S. and India have agreed to engage in new talks about artificial intelligence and its use in matters of national security, an outgrowth of the nations’ deepening relationship at a time of sharpened Indo-Pacific focus.

News of the inaugural Defense Artificial Intelligence Dialogue came after Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with their Indian counterparts , Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh and Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar, April 11.

Both the Defense and State departments acknowledged the topic in their accounts of the international get-together.

“The United States and India signed a Space Situational Awareness arrangement, which lays the groundwork for more advanced cooperation in space,” the Pentagon said in a readout . “They also agreed to launch an inaugural Defense Artificial Intelligence Dialogue, while expanding joint cyber training and exercises.”

Jack Shanahan, the first director of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, described the prospective talks as a “very significant event,” one that is “a logical extension” of the flagship U.S.-India Artificial Intelligence initiative, or USIAI, launched around this time last year.

“It’s clear India has got an interest in bringing AI into national security,” the retired Air Force lieutenant general told C4ISRNET April 14. “So, this is a good chance for the two defense departments to work together.”

On April 12, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said Austin had the chance this week to speak with Singh about “working with them on AI” and other advanced technologies, like 5G.

“All that was part of it,” Kirby said . “I’ll leave it to you to decide whether those are ‘breakthroughs’ or not. But, clearly what we saw yesterday was more concrete examples of the ways we’re going to continue to work with India to strengthen this defense partnership.”

Few additional details were immediately available.

“It seems to me what you’re going to see is an agreement just to, sort of, move forward and talk about potential projects that they can work on together,” Shanahan said. “And what I would expect is that it will not involve war-fighting operations, at least not initially.”

The Defense Department has for years recognized artificial intelligence as a crucial technology, one that can accelerate decision making, enhance data consumption and, more broadly, offer a leg up on the battlefield. As of April 2021, the department was juggling at least 685 artificial intelligence projects, including more than a dozen for major weapons systems.

For decades the Indian community has helped shape artificial intelligence research and development in the U.S., according to Cleo Paskal , a non-resident senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“At that level, there has been an enormous amount of collaboration and trust building and cross fertilization, if you put it that way, informally,” she told C4ISRNET April 14. The new dialogue, she suggested, brings things to a higher echelon.

“If you look at the leadership in some of the biggest tech companies in the U.S., you’ll see a lot of people who grew up and did their training in India and then flourished in the U.S. in the sector,” Paskal said. “So, it’s a very natural compatibility that is now going much deeper, and in areas that are going to help the defense of both countries against some common enemies.”

The Times of India in February reported the country was “finally taking some steps towards ensuring effective use of artificial intelligence” in its fighting forces. An AI council, led by the defense minister, had been established, the paper noted, as had an AI projects agency.

India’s Ministry of Defense in January 2019 said the process of preparing its forces “for use of artificial intelligence” had begun. AI-based tools, officials added, would improve military decision making, predictive maintenance, situational awareness and security.

Shanahan foresees an artificial intelligence boom in India.

“It has all the elements already in place: an incredibly talented workforce, it’s got a remarkable research community, it’s got a technology ecosystem,” he said. “It just has not really moved as fast as, say, the United States or China or the U.K., or other countries. But I think that explosion’s coming.”

The Defense Department’s 2018 artificial intelligence strategy warned China and Russia are investing significantly in AI for military purposes. Three years later, a report to Congress on Chinese military power advised the country would increasingly leverage big data, cloud computing and automation while pursuing what it called “intelligentized warfare,” defined by the expanded use of AI and other bleeding-edge tech at all levels.

Advancements in adversarial countries threaten to “erode our technological and operational advantages” and destabilize “the free and open international order,” the Defense Department said in its 2018 AI stratagem. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks on April 12 described China as the premier international challenge, whereas Russia poses an “acute threat.”

“Again,” Hicks said at a Defense Writers Group event, “very consistent with the last few strategies in that sense.”

India is obviously aware of the security hazards China imposes, Paskal noted, as the two powers share a border recently bloodied.

“India is literally on the front line with China,” she said. “China killed 20 Indian soldiers in June of 2020, and India is very, very clear that its primary threat is the People’s Republic of China.”

Colin Demarest was a reporter at C4ISRNET, where he covered military networks, cyber and IT. Colin had previously covered the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration — namely Cold War cleanup and nuclear weapons development — for a daily newspaper in South Carolina. Colin is also an award-winning photographer.

华盛顿——美国和印度已同意就人工智能及其在国家安全领域的应用展开新的会谈，这是两国关系日益加深以及印太地区战略日益聚焦的产物。

首届国防人工智能对话的消息是在国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀和国务卿安东尼·布林肯于 4 月 11 日会见印度国防部长拉杰纳特·辛格和外交部长苏杰生博士之后传出的。

国防部和国务院在对这次国际会议的报告中都提到了这一话题。

五角大楼在一份声明中表示：“美国和印度签署了一项太空态势感知协议，为更高级的太空合作奠定了基础。双方还同意启动首次国防人工智能对话，同时扩大联合网络训练和演习。”

五角大楼联合人工智能中心的首任主任杰克·沙​​纳汉将此次会谈描述为“非常重要的事件”，是去年这个时候启动的旗舰项目——美印人工智能计划（USIAI）的“合乎逻辑的延伸”。

“很明显，印度对将人工智能应用于国家安全领域很感兴趣，”这位退役空军中将4月14日告诉C4ISRNET。“因此，这对两国国防部来说是一个很好的合作机会。”

4 月 12 日，五角大楼新闻秘书约翰·柯比表示，奥斯汀本周有机会与辛格谈论“与他们合作开发人工智能”以及其他先进技术，如 5G。

“所有这些都是其中的一部分，”柯比说。“至于这些是否算是‘突破’，就由你们来判断吧。但很显然，我们昨天看到的是更多具体的例子，展现了我们将继续与印度合作，加强这一防务伙伴关系的方式。”

目前尚无更多细节可供披露。

“依我看，你们将会看到双方达成协议，共同推进合作，探讨可以开展的潜在项目，”沙纳汉说。“我预计，至少在初期，这些项目不会涉及战争行动。”

多年来，美国国防部一直将人工智能视为一项关键技术，它能够加快决策速度、增强数据利用能力，并在更广泛的层面上为战场作战提供优势。截至2021年4月，国防部至少同时推进685个人工智能项目，其中包括十几个用于大型武器系统的项目。

据保卫民主基金会非常驻高级研究员克莱奥·帕斯卡尔 (Cleo Paskal) 称，几十年来，印度裔群体一直在帮助塑造美国的人工智能研究和发展。

她于4月14日告诉C4ISRNET：“在这个层面上，已经进行了大量的合作、信任建立和交流，或者说，非正式的交流。”她认为，新的对话将事情提升到了更高的层次。

帕斯卡尔说：“如果你看看美国一些大型科技公司的领导层，你会发现很多人在印度长大并接受培训，然后在美国的科技行业取得了成功。因此，这是一种非常自然的契合，而且现在这种契合正在不断加深，并延伸到一些将有助于两国​​共同抵御敌人的领域。”

《印度时报》2月份报道称，印度“终于采取了一些措施，确保人工智能在其作战部队中得到有效运用”。该报指出，印度已成立了一个由国防部长领导的人工智能委员会，以及一个人工智能项目机构。

印度国防部于2019年1月表示，已启动部队“人工智能应用”准备工作。官员们补充说，基于人工智能的工具将提升军事决策、预测性维护、态势感知和安全保障能力。

沙纳汉预见印度将迎来人工智能的蓬勃发展。

他说：“它已经具备了所有要素：一支才华横溢的劳动力队伍，一个卓越的研究群体，以及一个完善的技术生态系统。只是它的发展速度还没有像美国、中国、英国或其他国家那样快。但我认为爆发式增长即将到来。”

美国国防部2018年的人工智能战略警告称，中国和俄罗斯正在大力投资人工智能用于军事用途。三年后，一份提交给国会的关于中国军事实力的报告指出，中国将越来越多地利用大数据、云计算和自动化技术，同时推行其所谓的“智能化战争”，其特点是在各个层面扩大人工智能和其他尖端技术的应用。

美国国防部在其2018年人工智能战略报告中指出，敌对国家的进步有可能“削弱我们的技术和作战优势”，并破坏“自由开放的国际秩序”。国防部副部长凯瑟琳·希克斯4月12日将中国描述为首要的国际挑战，而俄罗斯则构成“迫在眉睫的威胁”。

希克斯在国防作家协会的一次活动上说：“从这个意义上讲，这与之前的几项战略非常一致。”

帕斯卡尔指出，印度显然意识到了中国带来的安全隐患，因为这两个大国共享一条最近发生过流血冲突的边界。

“印度实际上正处于与中国的前线，”她说。“2020年6月，中国杀害了20名印度士兵，印度非常非常清楚，其主要威胁来自中华人民共和国。”

科林·德马雷斯特曾是C4ISRNET的记者，负责报道军事网络、网络安全和信息技术方面的新闻。此前，他曾为南卡罗来纳州的一家日报报道美国能源部及其下属的国家核安全管理局，主要关注冷战后的清理工作和核武器研发。科林还是一位屡获殊荣的摄影师。