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

972mag.com

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

#521

Post by pphysch »

Adverblessly wrote: post #415
goethes_kind wrote: post #186

Israel's evil keeps taking me by surprise. I guess when people go down the path of dehumanization there are truly no limits to what they are ready to do. But what is even sadder is that the supposedly morally superior western world is entirely bribed and blackmailed to stand behind Israel. And then you have countries like Germany where you get thrown in jail for being upset at Israel.

[flagged]

For people who are actually interested in this topic instead of bad-faith race-baiting, there is a ton of investigative journalism and academic analysis of the methods of the actually-existing Israel lobby.

Stephen Walt & John Mearsheimer "The Israel Lobby"

Al Jazeera's "The Lobby"

Mondoweiss, EI, etc.

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

#522

Post by edanm »

dang wrote: post #278
wantlotsofcurry wrote: post #137

Upsetting how quickly the other thread was flagged and downranked.

This is a typical phenomenon when a topic is divisive, and the Israel/Gaza topic is one of the most divisive. Edit: We sometimes turn off flags when an article contains significant new information and also has at least some chance of providing a substantive basis for discussion. I haven't read the current article yet but it seems like a reasonable candidate for this, so I turned off the flags. For anyone who wants mo…

> This is a typical phenomenon when a topic is divisive, and the Israel/Gaza topic is one of the most divisive.

Kind of related thought - is there a topic you think is more divisive? And also, is there some way that this is measured officially or unofficially?

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

#523

Post by tombert »

Nemo_bis wrote: post #499
tombert wrote: post #81

Had a minor panic; I got to a final stage of an interview for a company called "Lavender AI". They were doing email automation stuff, but seeing the noun "Lavender" and "AI" in combination with "bombing" made me think that they might have been part of something horrible. ETA: I wonder if this is going to ruin their SEO...it might be worth a rebrand.

Bold of you to assume they won't boast about it...

I'm pretty sure this company is pretty apolitical and would like to stay out of the discussion entirely.

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

#524

Post by random9749832 »

yonisto wrote: post #307
smt88 wrote: post #21

I know many people won't read past the headline, but please try to. This is the second paragraph: "In addition to talking about their use of the AI system, called Lavender, the intelligence sources claim that Israeli military officials permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed, particularly during the early weeks and months of the conflict."

[flagged]

>This is no different than chemotherapy

Say that to the parents of the aid workers whose vehicle was used as a bullseye: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68711282

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

#527

Post by lupusreal »

goethes_kind wrote: post #186

Israel's evil keeps taking me by surprise. I guess when people go down the path of dehumanization there are truly no limits to what they are ready to do. But what is even sadder is that the supposedly morally superior western world is entirely bribed and blackmailed to stand behind Israel. And then you have countries like Germany where you get thrown in jail for being upset at Israel.

> But what is even sadder is that the supposedly morally superior western world is entirely bribed and blackmailed to stand behind Israel.

Add religious indoctrination to that. A huge number of Americans are evangelical Christians who unconditionally support Israel because they are utterly convinced that the continued existence of Israel is a necessary prerequisite for the reincarnation of their god.

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

#528

Post by [deleted] »

sequoia wrote: post #362

I'm disturbed by the idea that an AI could be used to make decisions that could proactively kill someone. (Presumably computer already make decisions that passively kill people by, for example, navigating a self-driving car.) Though there was a human sign-off in this case, it seems one step away from people being killed by robots with zero human intervention which is about one step away from the plot of Terminator. I…

[deleted]

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

#529

Post by Workaccount2 »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #182
arminiusreturns wrote: post #141

> “We were not interested in killing [Hamas] operatives only when they were in a military building or engaged in a military activity,” A., an intelligence officer, told +972 and Local Call. “On the contrary, the IDF bombed them in homes without hesitation, as a first option. It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home. The system is built to look for them in these situations.”

> It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home. Okay, how is this not a war crime? There are ~2M civilians who live in Gaza, and many of them don't have access to food, water, medicine, or safe shelter. Some of those unfortunates live above, or below, Hamas operatives and their families. "Oh, sorry, lol." "It was unintentional, lmao, seriously." "Our doctrine states that we can kill X civilians for every hostile operativ…

The war in Gaza is unlike Ukraine because Hamas does not issue uniforms or clearly demarcate military targets.

When the US was in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda learned that the US (generally) won't shoot ambulances. So what became the most valuable vehicle to Al Qaeda? Hamas took notes, but Israel doesn't seem to care as much as the US.

Also, besides all that, once something is used for military operations, it is fair game as a military target. Regardless of civilians. When the law was written it was assumed that governments wouldn't intentionally use their civilians as protection.

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