AI and the Military: An Indian Wells Analogy...
In 2018, a young Bianca Andreescu began her career much like many other professional tennis players: with an International Tennis Federation (ITF) tour. At the time, she held the rank of World Number 189, and the highest ranking player she beat in the year was then World Number 78, Vera Lapko.
The year was not kind to her with one article in The Guardian noting that at the time, “an array of physical woes, including back injuries, shoulder ailments and stress fractures in her foot, were wearing on her”. The assessment did not bode well for the then 17-year old Canadian-Romanian tennis player. If I were a betting woman, dear reader, I may not have held many high hopes for Ms. Andreescu.
But come 2019, Andreescu entered as a wild card for the prestigious Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 Indian Wells event where she eventually faced former World Number 1 (and three-time Grand Slam champion), Angelique Kerber…and won.
In the latter’s remarks to Andreescu, she noted, “You just played amazing the whole tournament, so you really deserved to win the title here.” Sports commentators seemed to suddenly sit up and take notice of the Mississauga-born teenager. From across the globe, sports journalists commended Andreescu’s nimble footwork, groundstrokes, smooth transitions between offence and defence and her ability to prevent her opponent from landing on a rhythmic pattern of play (Kerber’s preferred style).
The win marked another astonishing milestone for Andreescu who eventually boasted 29 wins in 32 singles matches in 2019: the greatest number of matches won by any player on the men’s or women’s circuits that year.
Her win at Indian Wells also made her the youngest women’s champion at the tournament since Serena Williams won the title in 1999, made her the first wild card to win the women’s title in the history of the event and led to Andreescu’s rank rising to World Number 24 (it didn’t hurt to have her prize money go from $392 at the aforementioned ITF event to $1.35 million following the Wells win).
Much like Andreescu’s career, our High-Tech Geopolitics Research Analyst, Adya Madhavan, sees burgeoning potential for the use of AI in India’s military, if only we can work on the proverbial “woes” that the technology-adoption process is presently facing.
In her recent Op-Ed for The Hindu, Adya critically examines the spending on, and utility of, AI for India’s military. Importantly, she points to a few noteworthy obstacles including cost, interoperability, underdeveloped policy guidelines among others.
See below an excerpt of her argument:
A lack of digitised data to train systems on as well as a dearth of funds are the obvious factors. The biggest issue is the fact that the data centres required to run AI systems are expensive. India’s military already has to focus on replacing legacy systems such as older aircraft with newer models, which is an expensive endeavour in itself. India’s legacy hardware is no longer competitive in the global sphere, and significant resources are being directed towards replacing and upgrading it.
She goes on to argue for a few significant measures the military could take, including:
Strategic alignment is paramount, and robust frameworks and policies are necessary to ensure AI’s effective and ethical deployment. India needs to make systemic changes to tackle issues such as the inter-service silos and an overreliance on PSUs.
Read her article in its entirety here, including her comprehensive commentary on the international context around AI use in the military, as well as other unique hurdles India will face in this space.
P.S.: For those curious to see Bianca Andreescu in action at this famed 2019 tournament, follow this link.
eVTOLs? Someone Call the Jetsons!
Could we be entering a Jetsons-esque era, dear reader? (if that reference is lost on you, please see here). If the recent announcement by Bangalore’s Kempegowda International Airport to partner with Sarla Aviation on Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles is any indication, the answer may be yes.
In his recent Op-Ed in the Deccan Herald, Takshashila High-Tech Geopolitics Research Analyst, Avinash Shet, carefully unpacks the many urban mobility implications of this development, while pulling examples from other global cities grappling with similar transport evolutions.
Read his full commentary here.
Building a Stronger IAF…
In his recent article for the Mint, Takshashila Director, Nitin Pai, provides his commentary on the some of the ills plaguing the Indian Air Force (IAF):
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is not only short of an adequate number of aircraft to protect our skies, but will see its capabilities weaken over time, unless corrective action is taken immediately. In my estimate, a significant proportion of IAF’s fighter aircraft fleet is down due to a shortage of Russian spares, and the rest are sparingly used to ensure that they don’t fly into a spares crunch.
Follow this link for a more fulsome look at his analysis on what could lead to greater effective strength for the IAF.
Keeping an Eye on PLA Exercises…
Good news for all PLA-watchers in this community: Takshashila Indo-Pacific Studies Staff Research Analyst, Anushka Saxena has provided you a near-comprehensive explanation on the recent military exercises conducted by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) around Taiwan this past December.
Her recent post in our Indo-Pacific Studies Programme’s newsletter, Eye on China, she outlines greater context on the creation of seven reserved airspace zones for PLA incursions and the “completion of the PLA Navy’s Shandong aircraft carrier’s final sea training mission for 2024”.
To read her detailed analysis on the above developments, follow this link.
Time to Say Goodbye to PLI?
Our intrepid Research Intern, Miheer Karandikar, takes to examining Production-Linked Incentives (PLI) given the recent surge in public discourse on this particular government intervention in ‘strategic and sunrise’ sectors.
He casts much needed light on the gaps in the rationale behind sector specific selections and what better support for these sectors could look like, drawing from select examples across Southeast Asia in particular.
To take a closer look at his analysis, curious reader, follow this link.
All Things Policy of the Week: Clearing the Air on Our Pollution Crisis…
And we conclude with showcasing our All Things Policy (ATP) episode of the week.
Join Takshashila High-Tech Geopolitics Research Analyst Adya Madhavan in conversation with Dr. Sarath Guttikunda on all things air pollution in India, including trans-boundary pollution and air quality monitoring among other things.
To give their insightful (air-clearing) conversation a listen, follow this link.
This edition of the Dispatch was written by Kripa Koshy, Programme Manager for Takshashila’s Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy.