Thales CAIO Ajay Chakravarthy on AI in the Defence Sector

The defence and security sector faces a different set of constraints than consumer AI. Systems need to work in harsh environments with minimal resources, often disconnected from the cloud, running on limited power and hardware. 

Thales calls this approach frugal AI and the company has already deployed systems that meet these requirements in military operations.

Ajay Chakravarthy, Chief AI Officer at Thales, has spent two decades working in AI. 

His career has taken him from academic research at the University of Sheffield through roles as Chief Scientist of the AI Lab at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) in Porton Down and Chief Scientific and Technical Officer for Counter Terrorism Policing, where he learned the difference between prototypes that demonstrate capability and systems that operate under pressure.

Ajay explains: “There’s all the research you can do and all the prototypes you can create in AI, but then you really need to deploy it to the frontline.”