While the global debate about using artificial intelligence in warfare heats up, Israel has already been deploying itagainst the Palestinians. The Israeli army is using an advanced AI model called Fire Factory to select targets for airstrikes and handle other military logistics.AI deployment is a significant shift in warfare and brings incredible new risks for civilian life. Perhaps most concerning is that Israel’s use of AI is developing beyond international or state-level regulations. The future of AI warfare is taking shape right now, and few have a say in how it develops.
According to Israeli officials, the AI programs in operation use large data sets to make decisions about targets, equipment, munition loads, and schedules. While these items might seem mundane, we must consider how Israel collects this information and the military’s track record in protecting civilian populations.
Israel has administered a total military occupation over Palestinian populations in the West Bank and Gaza since 1967. Every aspect of Palestinian life in these territories is overseen by the Israeli military, down to the amount of calories Gazans consume. As a result of its complex occupation infrastructure, Israel has compiled vast amounts of data on Palestinians. This data has been a vital fuel for the rise of Israel’s vaunted technology sector, as many of the country’s leading tech executives learned their craft in military intelligence units that put this data to use.
The military and defense contractors have created a hugely profitable AI warfare sector using the West Bank and Gaza as weapons testing laboratories. Across the Palestinian territories, Israel collects and analyses data from drones, CCTV footage, satellite imagery, electronic signals, online communications, and other platforms collected by the military. It’s even rumored that the idea for Waze — the mapping software developed by graduates of Israel’s military intelligence sector and sold to Google for $1.1 billion in 2013 —was derived from mapping software designed to track Palestinians in the West Bank.
It’s abundantly clear that Israel has plenty of data that could be fed into AI models designed to maintain the occupation. Indeed, the Israeli military argues that its AI models are overseen by soldiers who vet and approve targets and air raid plans. The military has also implicitly argued that its programs could suppress human analytic capabilities and minimize casualties due to the sheer amount of data Israel collects. Analysts are concerned that these semi-autonomous AI systems could become autonomous systems quickly with no oversight. At that point, computer programs will decide Palestinian life and death.
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