Getting all these reports about atrocities, I wonder if the conflict in the area has grown more brutal over the decades or if this is just business as usual. I'm in my late 30s, growing up in the EU, the conflict in the region was always present. I don't remember hearing the kind of stories that come to light these days though, indiscriminate killings, food and water being targeted, aid workers being killed. I get that it's hard to know what's real and what's not and that we live in the age of information, but I'm curious how, on a high level, the conflict is developing. Does anyone got a good source that deals with that?
'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing in Gaza
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Re: 'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing in Gaza
#172Re: 'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing in Gaza
#173Re: 'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing in Gaza
#174A rather opinionated site with no about page.
Re: 'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing in Gaza
#175Probably going to be flame city in this thread, but I think it’s worth asking: is it possible that even with collateral damage (killing women and children because of hallucinations) that AI based killing technology is actually more ethical and safer than warfare that doesn’t use AI. But AI is really just another name for math, so maybe it’s not a useful conversation. Militaries use advanced tech and that’s nothing ne…
No the AI was the scapegoat for IDF deciding to "target" low-level enemies, then bombing them with bunker-buster 2000lb bombs that leveled entire buildings and city blocks around those targets.
The AI did something, but the IDF used it to justify effectively committing a genocide.
Re: 'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing in Gaza
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand why it was flagged, obviously it is a sensitive topic but AI being used to kill people is very clearly a HN-worthy topic
Yeah, you'd hope that a higher level conversation about the use of technology in war, pros/cons, etc could supersede personal political beliefs about this particular conflict. We don't need people's moral judgements on who is right or wrong in this particular case but it would be neat to hear people's thoughts on utilizing information technology as a weapon of war.
One would hope, but I’ve read all 21 comments in this post and not a single one of them meets your criteria.
Re: 'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing in Gaza
#177My question is: How far does the AI system go… is it behind the AI decision to starve the population of Gaza? And if it is behind the strategy of starvation as a tool of war, is it also behind the decision to kill the aid workers who are trying to feed the starving? How far does the AI system go? Also, can an AI commit a war crime? Is it any defence to say, “The computer did it!” Or “I was just following AI’s orders!…
> Also, can an AI commit a war crime? Is it any defence to say, “The computer did it!” Or “I was just following AI’s orders!”
It's not that the "AI" described here is an autonomous actor.
> During the early stages of the war, the army gave sweeping approval for officers to adopt Lavender’s kill lists, with no requirement to thoroughly check why the machine made those choices or to examine the raw intelligence data on which they were based. One source stated that human personnel often served only as a “rubber stamp” for the machine’s decisions, adding that, normally, they would personally devote only about “20 seconds” to each target before authorizing a bombing
Obviously all this is to be taken with a grain of salt, who knows if it's even true.
Re: 'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing in Gaza
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand why it was flagged, obviously it is a sensitive topic but AI being used to kill people is very clearly a HN-worthy topic
It was flagged because someone doesn't want people seeing this. It's also currently dropping rank on the front page, despite being heavily upvoted.
Now removed from the front page even without being labeled as flagged.