Terrorists vs security forces: A battle for supremacy in the space of Artificial Intelligence

The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a game changer. It has both pros and cons and this would entirely depend on how the technology is used.

Big powers across the globe realise the importance of AI and hence spend billions of dollars to facilitate AI-related development programmes.

As stated earlier, AI has both pros and cons. The Indian Army has been an early adapter of AI and has been using the technology to bolster national security and defence capabilities.

However, on the other hand terror groups like the Islamic State too have been quick to pick up this technology. Over the last couple of months there have been several instances to show how terrorist groups are using this technology to their benefit.

In a nutshell if one were to put it, AI would witness a good vs evil battle in the days to come, especially when it come to the use of AI.

The experts say that in the days to come it would all be about adoption and oneupmanship when it comes to using this technology. While terror groups would continue to adopt the technology further, the security forces would constantly need to upgrade capabilities to combat this threat.

Indian Army and AI

The Indian Army has been quick in adopting AI to boost its capabilities. It has been using tools to address the evolving and complex threats. It has used technologies such as Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), Big Data and Generative AI. The technology provides the Army with real time insights and predictive capabilities which contribute largely in decision making, response mechanism and threat detection.

The Indian Army has found that the use of AI ensures national security efforts to be more effective in nature. The forces have been able to improve its cyber defences while also automating surveillance.

Further AI has transformed the Integrated Theatre Commands into powerful data drive hubs. This has helped bridge operations across land, sea and air. This integration has also led to better coordination, faster decision making while also providing real time responsiveness of the military commanders.

At a time when there is talk about trimming down the Army, AI proves to be a game changer. AI has been a force multiplier which has helped the Army achieve more with fewer resources. AI take the bulk of the burden off when it comes to undertaking routine tasks and low value work. The personnel can thanks to this focus on critical priorities while also increasing effectiveness. In a nutshell AI has helped in facilitating more real time decisions while also improving combat readiness.

The dark side

While the security agencies using AI is a welcome move, there is also a dark side to the technology. In recent months, terror groups especially the Islamic State has been using AI extensively to boost capabilities.

For now the Islamic State has been using the technology largely for propaganda purposes. AI content creation is something that been used largely by the terror groups and it has been encouraging its cadres to adopt more to the technology.

Recently the terror group undertook its first experiment in which a news bulletin was created using AI. A generated news presenter read out the bulletin which had Islamic State propaganda in it.

For now, terror groups use AI only to further propaganda. However, counterterrorism experts say that this could go well beyond the scope of just spreading a message. The Islamic State is already exploring AI capabilities for its operations. If they are able to adopt to this, it would only help them maximise the impact of their strikes with the added advantage of avoiding detection.

Another worry is the use of the technology to power automated vehicles to carry out strikes. Recently the Intelligence agencies learnt that the Islamic State was exploring ways of using AI to hack into the traffic guiding systems. If they find success then this could help them manipulate the situation to cause loss of lives.

The Islamic State in particular has found that propaganda is its most dangerous weapon. When the Islamic State fell in mainland Iraq and Syria, the foreign fighters were told to go back to their homeland and carry out lone wolf attacks. Such attacks have been a major weapon for the terror group as it is zero cost terror. However, the success of a lone wolf attacks lies in propaganda.

To enhance the propaganda mechanism, AI has come in handy for these groups to undertake various tasks. The main material is always in Arabic. Now with the advent of AI, the content can be broadcast to a large audience as it can be translated with ease.

The Islamic State has also adopted to a tactic known as media spawning. It uses a single image or video to generate plenty of manipulated variants which are capable of circumventing has-matching and automated detection mechanisms.

AI has also been used for virtual recruitment and planning. Further the use of AI powered chatbots in radicalising individuals has also come to light.