Digital Intermediaries as Frontiers of National Security: The role of AI in Cyber Threat Detection and State Surveillance

ABSTRACT
The rapid expansion of India’s digital ecosystem has ably transformed the status of “digital intermediaries” as critical actors in “national security” governance. This paper is a mere attempt at the examination of this nexus of digital intermediaries (and their AI systems) and India’s national security ecosystem. AI, in contemporary times, plays a vital role in cyber threat detection and state surveillance. These digital intermediaries use systems like machine learning for phenomena like anomaly detection and behavioral analytics against the legal and constitutional frameworks of our nation which govern interception, data access and privacy of the juristic identities. Through the doctrinal analysis of statutes like, DPDP Act, 2034 and IT Act, 2000, leading judgements, contemporary research papers and other relevant documents, this paper evaluates the legal gaps which occur at the location of algorithmic accountability and oversight which shall arise when intermediaries deploy totally opaque AI for reasons, such as “security”. This analysis tries to establish that while AI might materially improve threat detection or speed, it simultaneously amplifies certain other risks such as automated profiling, rights towards infringement of state surveillance, when used without a clear statutory framework. This paper argues for the absence of a “mother law” governing AI systems and urges the need for a standardized regulatory framework including judicial authorization while high-risk deployments, statutory limits on government exemptions in data laws and obligation-based liability rules for digital intermediaries that must balance national security with fundamental rights.