Artificial intelligence is now reportedly helping Israel to better identify potential Hamas targets via automatic detection. The AI system, dubbed Lavender had, at one point, identified 37,000 potential targets.
Israel has stepped into uncharted terrain for sophisticated warfare with its employment of strong AI systems in its fight against Hamas. This has raised several ethical and legal concerns as well as changed the dynamic between military humans and robots.
An intelligence officer who employed Lavender claimed that his use was unmatched since they trusted a statistical mechanism more than a bereaved soldier because the machine handled it more detached and more easily.
(Photo : Sean Gallup/Getty Images) BERLIN, GERMANY - OCTOBER 28: People wave Palestinian flags and hold a picture of a watermelon as they gather for a "Global South United" protest to demand freedom for Palestine on October 28, 2023 in Berlin, Germany.
According to sources, Israel is accused of AI systems based on the testimony of six intelligence officials, all of whom have used AI to identify targets for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas throughout the conflict, as per the Guardian.
According to all six, Lavender was important in the war effort, sifting through vast amounts of data to quickly pinpoint possible "junior" operators for targeted attacks. According to four of the individuals, Lavender named up to 37,000 Palestinian men whom the AI system had connected to PIJ or Hamas at one point early in the conflict.
The Israel Defense Forces' Unit 8200, an elite intelligence division akin to the US National Security Agency or the UK's GCHQ, created Lavender.
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Israel's "Dumb Bombs"
A number of the sources explained how the IDF applied pre-authorized allowances for the expected number of civilians who could be killed before an attack was authorized for specific categories of targets.
According to two accounts, they were allowed to kill fifteen or twenty people during bombings on low-ranking militants in the early stages of the fight. According to the sources, attacks on these kinds of targets were usually carried out with "dumb bombs," which are unguided weapons that destroy entire homes and kill all of their occupants.
Israel's Hamas Identification Strategies
It appears that Israel is employing more and more computerized technologies to identify its targets. According to reports last week, Israel is attempting to identify Hamas members in the Gaza Strip by implementing a widespread facial recognition program. The Tel Aviv-based business Corsight developed the technology, which has been criticized for its numerous errors.
Initiated in response to the October 7th attacks, the program uses Google Photos technology along with a specific tool from Corsight to identify people connected to Hamas.
The Israeli military's Gaza operations and the creation of the facial recognition system were placed at the same time. Security camera footage and social media recordings released by Hamas were used by members of Israeli Defense Forces' Unit 8200, the main intelligence unit, to identify possible targets.
To find Hamas supporters in particular neighborhoods, soldiers also asked Palestinian inmates for information. With the help of the images acquired, Corsight-whose technology is renowned for its ability to recognize faces with less than half of them visible-developed facial recognition software for Israeli officers stationed in Gaza.
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