'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing spree in Gaza

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

Moreover, the Israeli army systematically attacked the targeted individuals while they were in their homes — usually at night while their whole families were present — rather than during the course of military activity. According to the sources, this was because, from what they regarded as an intelligence standpoint, it was easier to locate the individuals in their private houses. Additional automated systems, including one called “Where’s Daddy?” also revealed here for the first time, were used specifically to track the targeted individuals and carry out bombings when they had entered their family’s residences.

The result, as the sources testified, is that thousands of Palestinians — most of them women and children or people who were not involved in the fighting — were wiped out by Israeli airstrikes, especially during the first weeks of the war, because of the AI program’s decisions.

(snip)

The Lavender machine joins another AI system, “The Gospel,” about which information was revealed in a previous investigation by +972 and Local Call in November 2023, as well as in the Israeli military’s own publications. A fundamental difference between the two systems is in the definition of the target: whereas The Gospel marks buildings and structures that the army claims militants operate from, Lavender marks people — and puts them on a kill list.

In addition, according to the sources, when it came to targeting alleged junior militants marked by Lavender, the army preferred to only use unguided missiles, commonly known as “dumb” bombs (in contrast to “smart” precision bombs), which can destroy entire buildings on top of their occupants and cause significant casualties. “You don’t want to waste expensive bombs on unimportant people — it’s very expensive for the country and there’s a shortage [of those bombs],” said C., one of the intelligence officers. Another source said that they had personally authorized the bombing of “hundreds” of private homes of alleged junior operatives marked by Lavender, with many of these attacks killing civilians and entire families as “collateral damage.”

(snip)

https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

[oldguy_tls]

1. Some may not like my line of reasoning....

....but, if a combatant, no matter how junior, returns to the comfort of their non-combatant families, they are themselves placing the target on their family. In a war, and make no mistake, this a war, it's the aim of each side to kill more of the other side. But that's not the ultimate goal of a war, which is to eliminate your enemy's ability to strike back and/or their will to fight. Please understand that I grieve and am outraged at the seemingly indiscriminate bombing; the killing of civilians lining up for food and the recent killing of clearly marked World Central Kitchen VOLUNTEERS traveling in clearly marked cars and in an Isreali-controlled area. I want this fighting to stop NOW! However, the killing of the families of combatants because the combatants have placed their families at risk is very, very sad but an army can't always wait for the ideal time to attack a combatant. Does this sound callous? Yes. Is war in and of itself callous? Yes, it's one of the worst things a country can do. So, I've shown my ambivalence about this maddening behavior. What does everyone else think?

[Uncle Joe]

3. I always thought we created the United Nations along with a host of war crime laws because

the global World War II mentality was determined to ultimately be suicidal for the human species.

"I am death" and all that.





I believe we already have enough issues on our plate with climate change, and poverty; along with our resultant population increases as growing global threats against the human species.

I believe turning over life and death decisions to AI particularly when it involves killing non-combatants during war time will greatly increase the chances of human extinction or a near human extinction event.

[sanatanadharma]

2. Humans assuaging consciousness by letting robots kill

Humans assuaging their own moral consciousness by letting robots choose whom to kill.
All excuses for killing are only excuses.
Sending troops to die is bad, but sending them to kill is worse.
Curiously, the world has evolved such that when kings are angry at other kings, they do not fight. Others die for the kings' egos.

Stories have been told of AI's ability to make things up.
"Oh, hamas. I thought you said hummus."

[Cowpunk]

4. Every report from the Israel/Gaza war should be viewed with a lot of skepticism.

That said, this makes more sense to me than the narrative that says the IDF is deliberately killing food aid workers and doctors because GENOCIDE. It's still incredibly horrific if it's true.