Google Reportedly Worked Directly With Israel's Military On AI Tools 66
In the aftermath of Israel's October 2023 ground invasion of Gaza, Google reportedly worked with the Israeli military to provide AI services while racing against Amazon for contracts. This comes despite publicly denying collaboration with the military and punishing employees protesting its involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud computing agreement with Israel. The Verge reports: In the weeks after Hamas's October 7th attack on Israel, employees at Google's cloud division worked directly with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) -- even as the company told both the public and its own employees that Google only worked with civilian government ministries, the documents reportedly show.
Weeks after the war began, an employee with Google's cloud division escalated the IDF's military's requests for access to Google's AI technology, according to the Washington Post. In another document, an employee warned that Google needed to quickly respond to the military's requests, or else Israel would turn to Amazon for its cloud computing needs. In a November 2023 document, an employee thanks a coworker for handling the IDF's request. Months later, employees requested additional access to AI tools for the IDF.
Weeks after the war began, an employee with Google's cloud division escalated the IDF's military's requests for access to Google's AI technology, according to the Washington Post. In another document, an employee warned that Google needed to quickly respond to the military's requests, or else Israel would turn to Amazon for its cloud computing needs. In a November 2023 document, an employee thanks a coworker for handling the IDF's request. Months later, employees requested additional access to AI tools for the IDF.
Contractors are the only ones who win from war. (Score:3)
Companies are out to make money, while companies are run by people, they are not people. As the employees for the companies only have a shared agenda of making money. Thus moral issues are often ignored.
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Google is a big company, and one unit often has no idea what other units are doing.
Hanlon's razor [wikipedia.org]: Never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by incompetence.
Re: Contractors are the only ones who win from war (Score:4, Insightful)
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When it comes to big money, government, corporations, etc, never attribute to stupidity what could be malice in disguise.
It's pretty rarely outright malice. It's usually complete and utter indifference to moral stances. When your entire driver is, "What makes more money?" Morality and ethics get really fuzzy and hard to see through the cloud of green.
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Companies are out to make money, while companies are run by people, they are not people. As the employees for the companies only have a shared agenda of making money. Thus moral issues are often ignored.
It's also possible that better tools providing more accurate targeting saved Gazan lives, making the morality of helping hard to pin down one way or the other.
I'm not saying that's what happened -- I know absolutely nothing about it beyond what I got from skimming the summary -- just pointing out that moral questions can be complicated.
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It's also possible that better tools providing more accurate targeting saved Gazan lives
A war, as someone famously noted, is politics by other means. The "better tools" of a war are there with only one purpose - to enforce the politics that the war is "extending".
Therefore it is misguided to look at the toolkit in search for "morality". It is not in the tools, it is in the politics. The politics in this case is and has been the same since the mid-1940s, the name is "Eretz Yisrael". It has well-known equivalents in several other languages, and also a legal qualification.
"Saving lives" is the le
Re:Contractors are the only ones who win from war. (Score:4, Insightful)
We know for a fact that the IDF was targeting based on how best to effect genocide and completely annex Gaza, not on defeating Hamas. And indeed, Hamas is still there, and there are probably more recruits than ever now, thousands of war orphans and people who lost everything.
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We know for a fact that the IDF was targeting based on how best to effect genocide and completely annex Gaza, not on defeating Hamas.
Do we know that? How? Their failure to defeat Hamas does not prove your claim.
Re: Contractors are the only ones who win from war (Score:2)
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None of that changes the fact that they may have assisted with, or even engaged in war crimes. Israel's leader is a wanted war criminal, and the IDF was found to be prima facie committing genocide.
As an employee, if you ever find yourself potentially aiding crimes against humanity, refuse. Even if you get fired, it's better than being part of that, even if there is little chance of you being prosecuted.
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Regarding "Contractors are the only ones who win from war". If not for "contractors" producing weapons of war I suspect most of us would be living in totalitarian societies by now.
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Those contractors also sold arms to the other side as well. America was late getting to both World Wars, mostly because they wanted to burn the candle at both ends and sell to each side. While they were more aligned with the English based powers, they were willing to do business with the Germans.
Another reason (Score:2, Insightful)
To not use Google. Between their 'Do evil' motto and enabling genocide, just boycott them. Use any other search engine than them. The same with any of their services (mail, docs, etc). Just stop using them.
Don't be evil? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: Don't be evil? (Score:2)
You just said more about yourself than you did about Gazans.
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Bullshit. The only point of bringing up a racist stereotype is to be unkind. It was the entire purpose of your post. It contains zero other information.
If you want to be racist, own it. Don't start with these pathetic qualifiers like it changes what follows in any way. It doesn't fool anyone.
You felt the need to say something racist in public, and you so, so wanted to be unkind you had to post it. It wasn't revelatory, insightful, interesting or novel in any way, it was repeating the same tired, boring, old
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> That said, there are not efforts to kill everyone (or as many people as possible), as implied by "genocide".
Accusations of genocide as the term is defined legally appear reasonable in this case. But maybe for the average person accusations of relentless war crimes, indiscriminate killings, and crimes against humanity are more meaningful terms to describe what's actually been going on.
> This is a trolley problem where if the Israeli leadership switches the track, it will cause Israelis to be killed.
Re: Don't be evil? (Score:2)
I think you need to spend some time evaluating just who is "armed to the teeth by a foreign adversary".
Straight after ceasefire? (Score:5, Insightful)
How come this wasn't leaked in 2023 when it was actually relevant?
I suppose there is still a case of redress and compensation for those employees. And an admission of complicity from the CEO would be nice.
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Situation normal, nobody made a realistic movie about the Vietnam war while it was happening either.
I can't condem a business seeking profit (Score:1)
Businesses are profit-making entities, and those who decry "What about 'Do no harm'!?!?!" forget that's been long gone. If you don't believe me, Google still tracks you if you're in incognito mode in Chrome.
The optics stink, idealism can be brutal but their stock price (Alphabet GOOG) is up $50/share since mid-September even with the DOJ working to break them up.
Bayer who made Zyklon B which was used in the WW2 gas chambers, their stock just closed at 21.05 EUR today. Hugo Boss (BOSS.DE) who made those styl
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I can't condem a business seeking profit
You most certainly can.
Re:I can't condem a business seeking profit (Score:4, Informative)
Civilian casualties are, unfortunately, high.
Israel set up humanitarian zones where civilians could go to for safety, then deliberately struck those "safe zones" 97 times [bbc.com].
when those civilians elect in Hamas and support their terrorism and provocation.
Funny, that's the same thing Bibi and his government does when they turn a blind eye to Jewish terrorists destroying Palestinian crops, attacking Palestinians, or stealing their homes [youtube.com].
It very well might have helped/is helping to provide better data and reduce combat errors and civilian causalities.
There are almost 47,000 civilians killedin Gaza [reuters.com]. The only thing it helped was Israel's genocide.
But keeping making excuses. It's what you're being paid to do.
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>"But keeping making excuses. It's what you're being paid to do."
I have absolutely no connection or relation, whatsoever, to Israel, or any organization related to Israel, in any way. Nor do I have any Israeli or Jewish heritage, whatsoever. It is funny you think that anyone who could possibly disagree with you is somehow paid to do so.
Re:I can't condem a business seeking profit (Score:4, Insightful)
47,000 directly killed by Israeli weapons, supplied by Germany, the US, the UK... But it is thought that some multiple of that have died of secondary effects, like lack of access to hospitals (they have all been bombed to rubble and the staff murdered or kidnapped), starvation, exposure, preventable disease etc.
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What Israel is/was doing wasn't/isn't "genocide"
Every expert that doesn't work for the ADL or AIPAC disagrees with you.
We don't know what Google's AI services were actually doing for Israel. It very well might have helped/is helping to provide better data and reduce combat errors and civilian causalities.
AHahAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA
*gasp*
BAhbahbaHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA
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The AI was used to generate random "targets" and provide a justification for bombing them. I get the feeling this was mostly to justify things internally within the army and the Israeli government and public. That would be why they named their AI "the Gospel". That kind of branding works great for religious radicals, not so much the world at large.
Their AI is designed to automate the production of what governments used to call "faulty intelligence". Generating large quantities of BS is the thing AI excels a
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So spare me fake shock and outrage when Google works with countries you don't like.
I don't see anyone expressing shock, gaslighter.
The outrage is not fake, either. It would be if you were expressing it, because you don't believe in anything. Don't assume everyone is like you.
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Businesses are profit-making entities, and those who decry "What about 'Do no harm'!?!?!" forget that's been long gone. If you don't believe me, Google still tracks you if you're in incognito mode in Chrome.
The optics stink, idealism can be brutal but their stock price (Alphabet GOOG) is up $50/share since mid-September even with the DOJ working to break them up. Bayer who made Zyklon B which was used in the WW2 gas chambers, their stock just closed at 21.05 EUR today. Hugo Boss (BOSS.DE) who made those stylish SS Uniforms for the Nazis closed over 44 EUR a share today.
My point here is companies that have supported genocide directly or indirectly are still in business.
Oh, and I almost forgot IBM provided the Nazis with punch card tabulating machines and associated technology, which were used to conduct censuses, manage logistics, and track individuals. This technology played a significant role in the Nazis' ability to efficiently organize and execute their genocidal plans during the Holocaust. It closed at just over $223/share today. Even Henry Ford worked the Stalin and how many of his own people did he kill?
So spare me fake shock and outrage when Google works with countries you don't like.
To all this I would just say, just because terrible actions are common, it doesn't make them acceptable to those who would prefer to see a better world. Us little people that don't go out of our way to profit from the misery of others see these actions as deplorable from top to bottom. Not all of us prioritize profits above all else, and many of us see those that do as pure, unadulterated evil.
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Businesses are profit-making entities, and those who decry "What about 'Do no harm'!?!?!" forget that's been long gone. If you don't believe me, Google still tracks you if you're in incognito mode in Chrome.
The optics stink, idealism can be brutal but their stock price (Alphabet GOOG) is up $50/share since mid-September even with the DOJ working to break them up.
Bayer who made Zyklon B which was used in the WW2 gas chambers, their stock just closed at 21.05 EUR today. Hugo Boss (BOSS.DE) who made those stylish SS Uniforms for the Nazis closed over 44 EUR a share today.
My point here is companies that have supported genocide directly or indirectly are still in business.
Oh, and I almost forgot IBM provided the Nazis with punch card tabulating machines and associated technology, which were used to conduct censuses, manage logistics, and track individuals. This technology played a significant role in the Nazis' ability to efficiently organize and execute their genocidal plans during the Holocaust. It closed at just over $223/share today. Even Henry Ford worked the Stalin and how many of his own people did he kill?
So spare me fake shock and outrage when Google works with countries you don't like.
A potent mix of bandwagon fallacy and unfalsifiable statements.
Who cares? (Score:2)
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Re:Same Old People (Score:4, Interesting)
Not religion, colonialism and terrorism at one
https://www.vanityfair.com/new... [vanityfair.com]
9/15 stories in the front about AI as of now (Score:2)
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You heard it here first from fleeped, the singularity is imminent because of AI!
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Singularity in this site's microcosm: Articles about AI, sometimes written by AI, stories edited by AI editors, what's missing is some bot comments to pump traffic.
The bot comments are already here. They're just so good at pretending to be stupid that some folks don't notice them.
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You heard it here first from fleeped, the singularity is imminent because of AI!
Didn't Microsoft recently declare that the AI singularity is a monetary profit marker? Oh, wait, no, that was when AI switches to actual intelligence. My bad. The singularity is probably a different profit marker.
Re:AI dropping atomic bombs (Score:4, Informative)
"using pinpoint intelligence and analysis"
100% bullshit, Israel went at lengths to target not only medical workers and journalists, but their entire families
https://www.amnesty.org/en/lat... [amnesty.org]
"Gaza got AI analysis to minimize civilian casualties"
That is the opposite of the truth, gaza was used as a testing grounds for "AI analysis" resulting in "targeted" killing of whole families, AKA the Lanvender system (see: Palantir). You are a sick person defending pure evil
https://www.972mag.com/lavende... [972mag.com]
"Moreover, the Israeli army systematically attacked the targeted individuals while they were in their homes â" usually at night while their whole families were present â" rather than during the course of military activity. Additional automated systems, including one called âoeWhereâ(TM)s Daddy?â also revealed here for the first time, were used specifically to track the targeted individuals and carry out bombings when they had entered their familyâ(TM)s residences."
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Re:AI dropping atomic bombs (Score:5, Informative)
using pinpoint intelligence and analysis to neutralize brutal terrorists who attack, rape, and kidnap innocent people is noble...
So why didn't they?
Israel is a nuclear power and could have simply vaporized Gaza.
Instead, they told the civilians where they could evacuate to safely, then bombed those areas repeatedly. From an outside observer's perspective, it almost looks like their goal was to kill as many civilians as possible without completely destroying plausible deniability.
If I read the numbers correctly, Israel is estimated to have killed almost as many Palestinian civilians in the last 15 months as the U.S. did in its entire war in Afghanistan over the course of two decades There's a reason the U.N. formally condemned Israeli attacks on civilians during this war. They aren't just a little bit out of bounds. They're so far out of bounds that the bounds are hidden over the horizon.
Israel's complete lack of proper restraint during this war is really NOT okay, and whether you want to use the word "genocide" or not, we absolutely should not normalize that behavior, nor should anyone with even the slightest bit of morals support it in any way, shape or form.
2400 Americans were killed at Pearl Harbor and we dropped two atomic bombs on Japan
That is both grossly misleading and a false equivalence. Yes, only 2,343 Americans were killed at Pearl Harbor, but a total of 418,500 Americans were killed during World War II. Pearl Harbor was just the opening salvo that dragged the United States into the war.
Proportionally speaking, the estimated 214,000 mostly civilian casualties from the atomic bombs, as a percentage of the total American casualties, would be, relative to the number of total Israeli casualties, roughly equivalent to the number of Palestinian civilians killed by Israel every two weeks, give or take, and Israel kept doing this for 15 months.
It is also worth pointing out that the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the bombing of London, etc. are the reason that international laws were agreed upon to ban intentional mass attacks on civilian targets after World War II. Such an action would be a flagrant violation of international law today, and any world leader using an atomic bomb on civilians today, assuming the world did not completely end, would be executed for war crimes with near 100% certainty.
The situations are not the same.
God willing, Netanyahu will be forced to stand before a war crimes trial [icc-cpi.int] in the Hague. For reference, here is the list [icc-cpi.int] of the 125 countries that are obligated by treaty to immediately arrest and extradite him if he ever sets foot there.
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"From an outside observer's perspective"
And that is the problem- being an outsider informed by biased and incomplete media.
Gaza invaded Israel, and lost.
Gaza committed atrocities in Israel, but I wouldn't use the word "invaded". They didn't hold territory or even try, AFAIK. By contrast, Israel *did* invade Palestinian territory, setting up illegal settlements on land that wasn't theirs. So you could just as easily that argue that Israel invaded Gaza, and Gaza fought back, but lost.
The difference between good and evil is not what you do when things are going your way, but rather how you behave when you are backed into a wall and things are going badly.
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Did AI improve accuracy of the weapons or did i
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Israel is a nuclear power and could have simply vaporized Gaza.
You're a F0cking idiot. Nobody nukes an immediate neighbor, ever heard of fallout? It's not just a popular video game franchise.
1200 Israelis were killed and hundreds taken hostage by Gaza
How many Palestinians did Israel murder in the year prior to that attack alone? How about over the last 20 years?
Re: AI dropping atomic bombs (Score:2)
Moving the goalposts.
Anyway Netanyahu has bragged about making sure Hamas gets funded, he could have stopped this at any time but chose not to.
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Israel is a nuclear power and could have simply vaporized Gaza.
You need to both learn what a map is, and how nuclear weapons operate.