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AI The Military

Jerusalem Post: Israel's Gaza Strip Bombing Was 'World's First AI War' (jpost.com) 276

"For the first time, artificial intelligence was a key component and power multiplier in fighting the enemy," says a senior officer in the intelligence corps of the Israeli military, describing the technology's use in 11 days of fighting in the Gaza Strip.

They're quoted in a Jerusalem Post article on "the world's first AI war": Soldiers in Unit 8200, an Intelligence Corps elite unit, pioneered algorithms and code that led to several new programs called "Alchemist," "Gospel" and "Depth of Wisdom," which were developed and used during the fighting. Collecting data using signal intelligence, visual intelligence, human intelligence , geographical intelligence, and more, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has mountains of raw data that must be combed through to find the key pieces necessary to carry out a strike. "Gospel" used AI to generate recommendations for troops in the research division of Military Intelligence, which used them to produce quality targets and then passed them on to the IAF to strike...

While the IDF had gathered thousands of targets in the densely populated coastal enclave over the past two years, hundreds were gathered in real time, including missile launchers that were aimed at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The military believes using AI helped shorten the length of the fighting, having been effective and quick in gathering targets using super-cognition. The IDF carried out hundreds of strikes against Hamas and PIJ, including rocket launchers, rocket manufacturing, production and storage sites, military intelligence offices, drones, commanders' residences and Hamas's naval commando unit. Israel has destroyed most of the naval commando unit's infrastructure and weaponry, including several autonomous GPS-guided submarines that can carry 30 kg. of explosives.

IDF Unit 9900's satellites have gathered geographical intelligence over the years. They were able to automatically detect changes in terrain in real time so that during the operation, the military was able to detect launching positions and hit them after firing. For example, Unit 9900 troops using satellite imagery were able to detect 14 rocket launchers that were located next to a school... One strike, against senior Hamas operative Bassem Issa, was carried out with no civilian casualties despite being in a tunnel under a high-rise building surrounded by six schools and a medical clinic... Hamas's underground "Metro" tunnel network was also heavily damaged over the course of several nights of airstrikes. Military sources said they were able to map the network, consisting of hundreds of kilometers under residential areas, to a degree where they knew almost everything about them.

The mapping of Hamas's underground network was done by a massive intelligence-gathering process that was helped by the technological developments and use of Big Data to fuse all the intelligence.

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Jerusalem Post: Israel's Gaza Strip Bombing Was 'World's First AI War'

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  • by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @04:54AM (#61436132)

    Leave it to the Alchemist of War, to preach the Gospel, and convince us that warmongering AI was born from the Depth of Wisdom.

    Oh, and uh..we're just gonna go ahead and call ours Skynet. That way, we won't have to change the name later. Might mess up all kinds of code.

    • * Skynet, suddenly calculates it has created a Y3K problem, leading to its own demise at the stroke of (Jimmy-Buffet-Midnight-Somewhere), on December 31st, 2999, in the Year of Our Lord *

      [Command Module ZorgL0rd] "BleetBart! How could you let this happen!"

      [Terminator BleetBart] "Hey, don't look at me, you had me calculating weapons algorithms for moving human targets in real-time all day, remember!?"

    • by Dr. Tom ( 23206 )
      The epitome of chutzpah.
  • by nokarmajustviewspls ( 7441308 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @05:22AM (#61436190)

    While I guess the Israelis should be proud that they "only" killed 10x as many civilians as the Palestinians did (and if they had attacked indiscriminately they could have killed many many more) the problem is; why did any of these deaths occur at all? I mean if the Israelis (with Trump's support) hadn't abandoned peace (actually it came with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin) then no-one would have died.

    Of course the Palestinians aren't blameless either, certainly there are factions who don't want peace either but when one side has such overwhelming superiority, in every way (and that includes political support from other countries), they dictate the terms. The only thing the Palestinians can do is resist.

    Let's face it, the Palestinians are to the Israelis as a young child is to a man (armed with nuclear clubs). Should you judge them by the same standards? As the absolute dominant power they have responsibility, just as a man does not kill a child when the child kicks him. However, the Israelis seem to view this as an opportunity for abuse, while not quite rounding them up in camps as the Chinese are doing, they seem to be doing all they can to subjugate them and keep them in misery, ESPECIALLY without dignity.

    My own take is from speaking as a descendant of another oppressed culture (but aren't we all?). I am of Korean descent, my parents having survived the Japanese occupation. So when I hear of suicide attacks and whatnot I ask myself, would I be doing the same? I'm not saying it's right but when I read of the daily indignancies that have been going on now for GENERATIONS, I'm wondering if a quick death would be preferable to lifelong humiliation. I mean, let's face it, Israel never has, and never will treat the Palestinians as equals; just look at how they kept them from being vaccinated (despite themselves having the highest vaccination rate in the world). So they seem to be content on oppressing them, forever.

    The only difference is now they've got A.I. on their side. While here they are celebrating its use for reducing casualties what you don't see is them using it in facial recognition, hacking into people accounts, infiltrating peoples lives and furthering their campaign of control, suspicion and humiliation. I can only thank god the Japanese didn't have these tools when they tried (and almost succeeded) in wiping out Korea.

    • by Dog-Cow ( 21281 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @06:00AM (#61436242)

      The Koreans never declared an unending genocidal war against the Japanese. The same cannot be said for Palestinians against Jews.

    • I am of Korean descent, my parents having survived the Japanese occupation. So when I hear of suicide attacks and whatnot I ask myself, would I be doing the same?

      There's an important difference there.

      The Japanese Empire was fascist and xenophobic, with no regards for human life as they didn't hold the notion of "the value of human life", not even nominally. Such an enemy cannot be dealt with by means other than a) utter subjugation hoping for mercy in slavery, or b) desperate fighting back hoping to tire them while accepting your side will be relentlessly massacred to the last person if it drags long enough.

      The Israeli government, very differently, is a democracy un

    • So they can now say "the AI made me do it" when they purposely go blow up the Press or refugee camp or a school. Not that they seem to need much excuse since they just lie and say some bad guys were in those locations at any point in the past... when they can block most the rockets from even hitting them (the few that make it past the defense are probably such defective junk they wobble past interception.)

    • One side deliberately targets combatants, trying to minimize human casualties.

      One side deliberately targets civilians, trying to maximize innocent casualties and has repeatedly called for the genocide of the other.

      I fail to see the moral equivalence, regardless that one is stronger than the other.

    • why did any of these deaths occur at all?

      Are you asking why so many civilians died or asking why the war was started. Hamas gets a lot of the blame for civilian deaths. That's typically what happens when you important civilian infrastructure as your bases of operation in the hope that the other side will think it's just some civilian hospital.

  • '"Gospel" used AI to generate recommendations for troops in the research division of Military Intelligence, which used them to produce quality targets and then passed them on to the IAF to strike...'

    In the spirit of Kant's categorical imperative ("do as you would be done by"), one has to ask if the Israeli government and people would be content for their enemies to choose targets within Israel using the same software.

    • In the spirit of Kant's categorical imperative ("do as you would be done by"), one has to ask if the Israeli government and people would be content for their enemies to choose targets within Israel using the same software.

      I wonder if you would say that the Americans had to ask the same question before A-bombing the Japanese, or a woman who is defending herself from a would-be rapist using a gun. The whole point of war is that both you and the other side are trying to terrible stuff to each other. And frankly, Israel is the only country in the world that actually sends a notice a few hours in advance before bombing a building, something that your country has likely never done while bombing others.

      But yes, I know, it's one sta

  • Given the results, of hundreds of civilians slaughtered, dozens an dozens of them children, talking about artificial "intelligence" seems a bit out of place. Let's talk about artificial stupidity.
  • Blind Commenters (Score:4, Insightful)

    by zenlessyank ( 748553 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @06:40AM (#61436284)

    So many pro-Hamas folks here. Hamas is a terrorist organization. They love to start shit but when someone responds in kind they cry like 4 year olds.

    I would suggest that you Hamas lovers go to Palestine and take up their fight so you can die like the rest of them.

    Looks like the AI controlled rocket system worked as intended and shut down Hamas in less than 2 weeks.
    Hopefully Hamas will realize they can't win against a super powered backed country and go back to peaceful lives. O wait.

    • You're funny. Like Hitler doing a happy jig when France surrendered funny.

      Raising "terrorism" smokescreen when someone criticizes a regime that has been invading and displacing people in a land they have zero right to be in, doing ethnic cleansing and genocide, murdering children, doing human experimentation, bombing refugee camps and medical clinics and charities and news outlets.

      Israel has been doing evil for decades,and then raises smokescreen of "that's anti-semite" and "we're the victim" when critici

      • The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

        All Muslims believe in 'Death To America' and death to anyone not Muslim. Since Israel is enemies with the Muslims, it only makes sense to befriend them.

        BTW...I am funny but this subject is not funny. And neither is your reference to Hitler. Wanna have a conversation, fine. Wanna call me a Nazi then fuck off.

        • That's funny, we have over two million muslims here in USA not saying Death to America. Some I know have served in armed forces.

          You are a zionnazi. Zionists do the same things as nazis. Oppression, ethnic cleansing. hemicals to kill minorities, human experimentation, invading land, making giant concentration camps, killing and maiming to steal.

          The world is seeing you for what you really are. Righteous Jews agree with me and have been saying the same thing, for over 70 years now.

          • Muslims follow a false prophet named Muhammad. ALL Muslims believe the same thing. Just because they are passive at the time doesn't mean they don't believe the same thing.

            You are a misled fool if you think they will be peaceful when the opportunity rises.

            Death to false religion and death to Muslims. Most of the Middle East needs to be nuked. You are free to join them. This is the opinion of a realist. I personally don't give 2 shits about Israel but since they have the balls to deal with Muslims then more

  • by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @10:10AM (#61436806)

    It doesn't really help that Hamas doesn't even bother to at least claim, even falsely, that they are aiming for military targets. Makes it look like they are after extermination and genocide. They've gotten consumed by so much hatred that they can't think of doing anything else. I guess that's what happens to any victim of abuse. I had a neighbor who used to treat his dog like shit, and of course, the dog became fierce and lashed out at people. It's a vicious cycle, hard to break out of. Israelis faced attempted genocide before, they aren't going to fuck around when they feel threatened. In many circumstances, abused becomes abuser --- not a guarantee but it's just more probable because humans choose to have little control over emotion-driven acting. It requires active suppression. Many (almost every?) humans has a limit or set of emotional states in which they would make immoral or unethical decisions -- some have a lower threshold than others.

  • Finding tunnels has not much to do with classic artificial intelligence but with advanced sensor evaluation.

    Satellites have been able to scan underground tunnel networks for around 20 years. There are at least two nations openly claiming to be able to scan deep underground, the USA and Germany. For example the commercial resouce scanning satellite "Erdräuber" was able to detect underground anomalies like Oil, hot springs, flowing water, metal and caverns up to a depth of 2000 meters in 1992. The milita

    • by djinn6 ( 1868030 )

      If it was that easy, nobody would be building tunnels to hide things. These technologies work on huge underground structures, not small tunnels, and the results are very difficult to interpret. It's also easy to fool, since it depends on the conductivity of the ground. One can easily create tons of fake tunnels with plastic or chicken wire.

  • [This comment is aimed at Israel but really applies to any group that is oppressing another: Han Chinese / Uyghurs, Burmese / Rohingas, (White Americans / Blacks?). Ultimately it extends to smaller and smaller groups ...]

    Have you heard of the $400 bet between Steven Pinker and Martin Ree? It states that between 2017 and 2020 there will be an act of bio-terror or bio-error that kills a million people. Why this is relevant today is because if it is determined (by the W.H.O.?) that Covid was released accide

C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas l'Informatique. -- Bosquet [on seeing the IBM 4341]

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