NEW DELHI – Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the governmentwas serious about introducing applications of artificial intelligence (AI)for defence forces and called for building adequate infrastructure for itsuse.

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

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

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

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

“The task force should be able to tell us what is it that will encouragethe use of the AI in defence forces. The challenges identified is the lackof infrastructure to enable the use of AI. I would place cyber, nuclear andspace high on this agenda,” she said.

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

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

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

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