by Tom Bunzel, The Pulse:

At one time I was thinking AI got dangerous, we could just unplug the computer.  Now I’m not so sure….

What if it started actually killing people on a large scale?  It’s worth asking…

What is a war crime? Using nuclear weapons at this point would probably qualify. But what about technology that is so new that few humans can even fathom it?  Apparently, it is no longer scifi.

TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

I recently heard somewhere that Israel is using artificial intelligence to track targets in Gaza. Here is an article about “Lavender” – detailing exactly how such a system has taken killing decisions out of the hands of humans.

I am hesitant to write about “news” these days because there is so much doubt about credibility, whatever one uses as a source.  In this case the source is + 972 Magazine, to which I was led by the Washington Post.

Regardless, the details in this story make it hard to doubt and the results clearly visible on TV every night speak for themselves.

I wasn’t quite able to finish the whole article.  My lunch is churning in my stomach.  Here is a sample:

“Lavender learns to identify characteristics of known Hamas and PIJ operatives, whose information was fed to the machine as training data, and then to locate these same characteristics — also called “features” — among the general population, the sources explained. An individual found to have several different incriminating features will reach a high rating, and thus automatically becomes a potential target for assassination.”  (From the article)

According to the author who references IDF sources, the system was programmed to identify Hamas targets, and after October 7 expanded to included even “junior operatives”.

This led to the identification of thousands of Hamas targets, but they weren’t to be attacked on the battle field; rather it was more expedient to get them where they lived, and the IDF used a tracker knicknamed “Where’s Daddy” to track individuals to their homes where they were bombed or taken out by drone in the early morning hours.

Here is a description of how the operation was expanded to widen the net of targets:

“’We didn’t know who the junior operatives were, because Israel didn’t track them routinely [before the war],’ explained senior officer B. to + 972 and Local Call, illuminating the reason behind the development of this particular target machine for the current war. ‘They wanted to allow us to attack [the junior operatives] automatically. That’s the Holy Grail. Once you go automatic, target generation goes crazy.’”

So rather than increasing the efficiency of treating breast cancer, or processing financial transactions, the IDF was excited about the prospect to automating killing to an extent never before contemplated.

Throughout human history, any side in a war has seen fit to use any technological advantage.  We used the atomic bomb to purportedly shorten World War II, and faced with unimagined horrors Japan capitulated.

After October 7^th no one could blame the Israelis for declaring “war” on Hamas.

But it would seem to me beyond controversy that using computer software to identify targets on a large scale would qualify as a war crime.  No matter what scientists might tell us about using “neural networks” or otherwise “humanizing” artificial intelligence – this is potentially suicidal for humanity.

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