'Israel' militarizes AI in the West Bank, Gaza, Syria: Bloomberg

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Bloomberg
16 Jul 2023 16:50
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Bloomberg reveals the unethical use of AI programs such as Fire Factory by the Israeli Air Force.

An Israeli military drone takes off near the border with Gaza Strip, August 21, 2020 (AP)

"Israel" is adding to its long list of unethical military practices by integrating unregulated AI technology in its aggression on occupied Palestinian territories and Syria, as highlighted by a Bloomberg report.

According to the media company, Israeli occupation forces, specifically the Air Force, have employed a data-crunching artificial intelligence program that selects targets for air strikes and organizes wartime logistics in their attacks on various regions.

"Israel" then employs another AI model dubbed "Fire Factory" to analyze the collected data to determine munition loads, prioritize and assign thousands of targets to aircraft and attack drones, and propose a schedule to carry out the attack in a matter of minutes.

At both stages, the data have to be approved by human operators, who take the decision to alter or approve the attacks. However, the technologies are not subject to any regulation.

This comes as Israeli occupation forces intensify their use of aerial attacks in their "policing operations" in the West Bank, an act that has been condemned by UN officials for breaching international law. To this day, the IOF has still made no statement on its use of AI and the process and checks that go into it.

Supporters of the system claim that it can save civilian lives; however, the most superficial analysis of the recent aggressions on Gaza and Syria tells a different story as the IOF continues to add to its crimes against Palestinian and Syrian civilians.

The systems have even garnered criticism from Israeli experts such as Tal Mimran, an expert on IL who said, "If there is a mistake in the calculation of the AI, and if the AI is not explainable, then who do we blame for the mistake?"

He added, "You can wipe out an entire family based on a mistake," a common practice of the Israeli Air Force in Gaza.

Israeli military officials told Bloomberg that systems such as the Fire Factory are designed to be used in multi-front wars, where several fronts or battles could be opened against the occupation at the same time. The occupation forces hope that the AI data-crunching and scheduling will prove essential as it seeks to regain its superiority against large-scale rocket and missile launch campaigns.

The IOF confirmed that the Fire Factory was developed by Rafael, an Israeli military contractor and the developer of the Trophy active protection system mounted on armored vehicles.

Although Israeli occupation forces are one of the few militaries to announce their use of AI in their attacks, experts speculate that many other militaries are secretly developing their own programs. In any case, "Israel" boasts that its models are testing in real battles; however, this disregards the use of militarized AI on civilian populations as it regards Gazans and the people of the West Bank as test dummies for its military industry.