Israel's AI-Powered War

AI-powered warfare is flattening Gaza, but doing it "intelligently." Why are we talking about the singularity instead?

Every once in a while my three major research areas—on the Middle East, risk and security, and the global far right—intersect in ways too significant to ignore. Today brings just such a trifecta, and with it, a post about the dangers posed by AI-powered warfare (currently flattening Gaza at an unprecedented pace) and why these very deadly, here-and-now AI risks are often deemed less important than the possible robot takeover.

On Nov. 30 the Israeli-Palestinian magazine +972 (one of the best news sources for all things conflict-related) published an in-depth report detailing Israel’s use of an AI-guided targeting system for its Gaza bombing campaign. As of right now, Israel’s assault has resumed after a week-long truce saw the release of over 100 hostages held by Hamas and hundreds of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons. So far approximately 15,000 Palestinians—about .68% of Gaza’s total population—have been killed in the bombardment, including more than 6000 children. To give you a sense of the enormity, if you translated that casualty rate to the United States you would have about 2.3 million people dead, which is more than the total killed in all wars the US has fought since 1776.

Many have noted the shockingly high civilian death toll in Gaza, which has been largely attributed to Israel’s inadequate care to avoid civilian targets. “We are not being surgical,” as IDF air force chief Brig. Gen. Omer Tishler told reporters early in the war, a sentiment echoed by IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari on Oct. 9: “The emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.” But the 972/Local Call report adds crucial information to this story that helps explain why the number of civilians killed in this war far outstrips that of previous campaigns. As the NYT reports, “women and children account for nearly 70 percent of all deaths reported in Gaza even though most combatants are men,” which is a far greater rate than we saw with Gaza casualties during Israeli operations in 2008 (39%) , 2014 (38%), and 2021 (41%). Something fundamental has shifted beyond the thirst for vengeance. Here it’s worth quoting at length from +972 journalist Yuval Abraham: