AI allegedly identified 37,000 low-level Hamas operatives in family homes

NEWS AND OPINION: This is the big news story this morning. It is a story of how artificial intelligence (AI) can rule humans but it is today and not at some uncertain time in the future.

Although the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have denied it, the allegation is that an AI system called Lavender selected low level Hamas operatives inside homes in great numbers (allegedly 37,000) and the AI assessment was verified in a cursory way by a human operative followed by an order to bomb the family home.

The face of modern warfare!?

The resultant airstrike or shelling would kill 15-20 innocent civilians inside the home including many children and on low-level Hamas operative SELECTED BY A COMPUTER.

It is hard to imagine. If it is true it would explain why so many family homes and entire families have been destroyed by the IDF.

I guess the big problem for the IDF was separating out the Hamas terrorists from the innocent Gazans and they believed that AI could solve the problem.

The problem with AI is that someone has to feed the information in to the computer initially after which it learns itself.

If the initial programming is faulty the whole thing is faulty. It is claimed in news media that one IDF officer said that his role was to rubber stamp the AI selected target. A few seconds was allegedly spent is verification.

The very serious allegations are based on interviews with six Israeli intelligence officers who have served during this conflict.

One said: We were not interested in killing [Hamas] operatives only when they were in a military building or engaged in a military activity. On the contrary, the IDF bombed them in homes without hesitation, as a first option. It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home. The system is built to look for them in these situations.”

This story will reverberate around the world. If it is true it demonstrates and incredibly inhumane and callous approach to rooting out Hamas terrorists.

The IDF want to destroy Hamas as a terrorist group. But that's impossible to do with bombs. It can only be done by changing attitudes across all of Gaza and among all Palestinians which can only be achieved peacefully in eliminating the reason for the existence of Hamas. 

The IDF have made things considerably worse. There will be more Hamas terrorists than ever going forward. They have cemented the hostility between aggrieved Palestinians and Israelis.

Proxy war

The Gaza war is a war between America and Iran it is claimed. It is a proxy war with Israel carrying out attacks for America and Gaza carrying out attacks for Iran (or Russia as I have alleged in an earlier post).

Cats and dogs - must not forget

What about cats and dogs? Many must have been killed and many injured and died a slow death. Many are starving or have starved to death judging by the destruction that we see of Gaza and the food blockade. It is  humanitarian crisis and an animal crisis in equal measure.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.