Russia’s AI enabled military ecosystem
Context:
- Russia has developed AI-based military systems which includes AI enabled robotic weapons, autonomous tanks, and unmanned aerial vehicles.
In the wake of the Ukrainian crisis, This has come into relevance.
Background-
- Russia which has been adopting 2AI-based military ecosystem and its adoption of futuristic technologies and modern Capabilities has out matched countries such as USA and other european countries.
The strategy of Russia gained momentum in 2014 when the defence Ministry of Russia announced that its 30% of the combat power would be robot used by 2030.
The leader of the country Vladimir Putin Proclaim that who ever becomes the leader in artificial intelligence will rule the world. - Despite this Russia is still behind compare to countries such as US and China in terms of AI capabilities.
With the recent announcement by Xi Jinping on China–Russia “no limits partnership” and deciding to back each other on Ukraine and Taiwan conflicts, it is evident that these two nations will have more collaborations in future - Russia also suggested China for partnership in garnering and building Russia’s AI readiness in the wake of Ukraine crisis. Russia’s AI programme functions differently when compared to other countries as it is run by the state-owned firms and not by the government. Russia’s defence conglomerate Rostec is working dedicatedly on building AI capabilities. The Russian government is shorthanded due to its lack in a strong defence industrial base
Importance:
- AI plays a vital role in information warfare, which is evident in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as it helps in analysing the vast amount of open-source intelligence from videos to Telegram posts on troops and attacks, to fact check the events and claims made by both sides and can be further used for future war crime prosecutions. One issue with the use of such technology is deep fakes that use AI techniques to create realistic videos to launch disinformation campaigns. However, ML can detect such fake videos, and various social media platforms are already used to deploy such systems.
Way Forward:
Some of the world’s biggest AI companies have become the battlefield for information warfare amidst this conflict, with the data and services becoming vital links to it. Some companies like Apple and Dell have ceased their sales in Russia and have removed apps like RT News and Sputnik News from the app store
To mitigate the disinformation campaigns, companies like Meta, Twitter and Telegram are either limiting or suspending the promotional posts for the safety of the people in the conflict zone. Tesla and SpaceX have opened the Starlink for Ukraine at the request of the Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov. Elon Musk has also made superchargers free to use in Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to help people escape from the war zone.
Source: THE HINDU.
