ABSTRACT

A decade ago, one of the seminal foreign volumes on India’s military procurement and acquisition processes levied the criticism that India seeks to arm itself with the most advanced platforms without aiming. When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), however, the opposite logic holds. India could be said to be “aiming without arming.” In spite of its reputation as a software and information technology capital, India has been lagging when it comes to the integration of AI into military applications. While India has established multi-disciplinary task forces to develop a conceptual framework for AI development and integration, challenges remain in its procurement and R&D structure and its effort to implement these aims. By contrast, China could be said to have shifted to “arming without aiming,” particularly when it comes to AI. China has leapt ahead with development and fielding of these AI technologies and platforms over the past decade. This arming could be said to outpace the aiming, as China’s recent strategic documents struggle to keep up with its breakneck advances. This chapter explores differences and similarities between these Indian and Chinese models.