The head of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) proclaimed that India is to collaborate with its friendly countries on leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance its defence capabilities.

Samir V Kamat mentioned that India is working with other countries to develop tools and fundamental research to improve the algorithm which goes into AI. While commenting on the AI applications in the defence sector, the DRDO chief said AI aids in preventive maintenance, surveillance and cyber security. He stated, “It is playing an increasing role in the offensive action. It is a technology which is going to make a big difference not only in improving the performance of the military but also in its efficiency”.

When discussing India’s collaboration on leveraging AI, Kamat said, “We are working in collaboration with countries that are friendly to us. With such disruptive technologies, it is good to collaborate with other countries.” He also refused to divulge further information on collaboration with other countries.

However, he said, “I will not state the name of the countries with whom we are working, but we are working with friendly countries on developing tools as well as fundamental research in improving the algorithm that goes into making the AI tools.”

About the threat posed by AI, he informed that India is working with various academic institutions to build AI-based techniques to spot cyber intrusion as well. He added, “So the major threat from AI is in cyber. The large number of attacks which happen in AI are happening through bots which work on AI. The same AI can also be used in cyber defence”.

Kamat later said, “We are working collaboratively with several academic institutions to ensure that the AI is based on techniques to detect cyber intrusion, to prevent all our critical infrastructure from being attacked, and how to use AI tools that can prevent such attacks,” he added.