New Delhi, Oct. 20 -- Data centres are emerging as important targets in modern warfare, as attacks in Russia and the Middle East demonstrate how damage to digital infrastructure can disrupt essential services and complicate countries' efforts to develop artificial intelligence (AI).

Ukrainian strikes on facilities belonging to Russian technology company Yandex and Iranian attacks on Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure in the Gulf have highlighted the consequences of placing large amounts of computing capacity in vulnerable locations. The incidents also raise questions about how governments and technology companies can keep critical digital services running during armed conflict.

Connor Martin, an expert on the national security imp...