One of the most horrifying aspects of the genocide in Gaza concerns the Israeli army’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Systems that seem to stem from science fiction scenarios are being used by the Israeli army’s intelligence services to locate targets, with no regard for the lives and safety of civilians. Using such systems would not be possible without the assistance of the US and various Big Tech corporations.
One of the systems that was widely used, especially in the early stages of the war, is Lavender. Developed by the IDF’s elite intelligence unit, Unit 8200, it is an AI system whose job is to generate lists of potential targets based on the information provided to it. This information ranges from facial recognition systems attached to drones, to telephone conversations and social media posts. In other words, it is a huge database of mass surveillance.
Lavender learns to identify the general characteristics of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters and then matches these characteristics to the general population. Simply put, if the data available for any Palestinian shows a high correlation with that of the average Hamas fighter, that person is automatically targeted by the system. The operator of the system determines how high the correlation must be in order for a target to be registered.
According to revelations by the Israeli-Palestinian magazine +972, pressure was exerted to keep the correlation threshold low, so that more targets could be identified for bombing. The same report also reveals a series of other horrific practices.
Typically, systems such as Lavender are used as an auxiliary tool and under human supervision. In practice, this means that a “potential target” identified by the system, must be thoroughly checked by a human operator to determine whether it is actually a Hamas fighter. This process was completely overlooked by Israeli forces, who approved targets in just 20 seconds, only checking whether they were male or female. All this, even though they knew that the system was wrong in 10% of cases! Combined with the reduced correlation threshold, this means that thousands of unarmed civilian Palestinians were swiftly targeted and bombed!
Furthermore, most of the “targets” were attacked in their own homes, resulting in the deaths of their families and neighbours. This was because it was easier for the Israeli army to locate them when they were at home. Through a system with the outrageous name “Where’s Daddy,” the Israeli army monitored when a “target” entered their home and then gave approval for the bombing. Often, due to delays in executing the operation or inaccuracies in the systems, the “targets” were not even at home at the time of the bombing.
Furthermore, in order to save ammunition, the IDF used so-called “dumb” bombs, which are much less accurate than “smart” precision bombs. This resulted in an increase in civilian casualties. This increase was a consequence of the overall loosening of the rules of engagement.
While in the past “collateral damage” was not permitted when it came to low-ranking Hamas officials, after October 7, 2023, a green light was given. For high-ranking officials, the permissible losses often exceeded 100. In other words, the IDF’s official guidelines were that the killing of hundreds of civilians was permissible in order to strike a single Hamas leader! To put this number into perspective, in bloody wars such as the one in Iraq, the US army allowed a maximum of 15 “collateral casualties.”
The role of the US and Big Tech
The know-how surrounding such systems did not come out of nowhere for Israel. The American tech company Palantir, notorious for the automatic targeting systems it manufactures, is its strategic partner. Although not explicitly mentioned in the +972 report, Lavender resembles systems such as those manufactured by Palantir. Moreover, since the start of the war, it has declared its support for Israel, while its head in the United Kingdom, Louis Mosley (grandson of English fascist Oswald Mosley), said of the sale of software to the IDF: “We are very proud of the work we do in Israel”.
Powerful data mining software such as that developed by Palantir makes such automatic targeting systems operational in Israel. Similar systems manufactured by Palantir are also used in Ukraine.
Palantir is currently developing an even more powerful system called TITAN (Tactical Intelligence Targeting System). Although it is being developed for the US army, there are serious concerns that it has already been tested in Gaza. In any case, only real-world testing can measure the accuracy and speed of such systems.
Their “success” depends to a crucial degree on the data that powers them. In the case of Israel, the main provider of such data is the US. As Edward Snowden revealed in 2013, the US National Security Agency (NSA) secretly provided the Israeli government with access to the personal communications (phone calls, emails, etc.) of Palestinians living in the US with their relatives in Palestine. Even today, this data is used to “train” the weapons of genocide.
The list of technology companies that provide direct assistance to Israel’s military operations does not stop at Palantir. Microsoft, Google, and Amazon rent out, through their platforms, the hardware infrastructure that Israel needs to process and store the data it collects.
Specifically, according to research by The Guardian, Microsoft provided Israel with the Azure platform to store all Palestinian communications it intercepted, until it ended the partnership last September due to international reactions. However, for as long as it lasted, this collaboration multiplied Israel’s espionage capabilities and allowed it to expand its mass surveillance of Palestinians.
In addition, Google and Amazon are both involved in Project Nimbus. This is a $1.2 billion contract to provide computing infrastructure and AI tools. These include facial recognition, emotion analysis, and predictive policing tools. It is a panopticon designed to monitor every aspect of Palestinian life.
On the role of Artificial Intelligence
If we can draw any conclusion about AI from the above, that is the degree of risk it poses when used as a weapon. However, this risk does not arise inherently from AI itself. It is not the result of some sort of malfunction or misunderstanding of how it works. It is not an underestimation of its capabilities. These systems are used despite their known margin of error, design flaws, and the consequences of relaxing the selection criteria imposed on them.
The choice to ignore or not ignore the above is human. People determine the training data, the classification categories, the flexibility of the model, and ultimately, people make the decision to kill. The role of AI here is, on the one hand, to be used to accelerate the slaughter and, on the other hand, to mask the cynicism and indifference to human life behind the “neutrality” of the machine. Ultimately, all the consequences of its use are the result of political will.
Struggle against Big Tech
It is clear that the big tech giants have close ties with the IDF and played an important role in the genocide of the Palestinian people. Like many other companies in other industries, not only did they not cut off trade with Israel, but they saw the war as yet another opportunity for enrichment.
The only way to put a stop to the collaboration between these companies and Israel’s war machine is through the struggle of their own employees, combined with outcry from the general population (which is also their consumer base). There are already voices condemning what is happening. Companies such as Google and Amazon have seen protests of their workers against their collaboration with the Israeli army. In fact, in the spring of 2024, Google fired dozens of employees who participated in such protests.
If these voices multiply, organize, and proceed with strike actions, the tech capitalists will suffer a major blow. The anti-war movement must target companies that collaborate with the Israeli state and try to organize their workers to block the services and products that make the -still ongoing despite the ceasefire- war against the Palestinian masses possible.
Mass workers’ struggles are the only way to really pressure both big companies and Western governments to cut ties with Israel and its genocidal policy.
As is increasingly clear, these companies wield huge power and cannot be left in the hands of the ultra-rich. The movement has to aim at their expropriation, bringing them into public ownership under workers and social control and management.
