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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

#881
post #880

+972 magazine is EXTREMELY anti-Israel and anti-semitic, so this article is written through the lens of despising Israel and Jews. Here are some of their other article titles, which you can find on their home page: 1. Hebrew University’s Faculty of Repressive Science 2. The spiraling absurdity of Germany’s pro-Israel fanaticism 3. The first step toward disintegrating Israel’s settler machine As such, their view is no…

Do the IDF analysts who are being interviewed also despise Israel and the Jewish people?

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

#882
post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's even books written about it. Shame on IBM for this. I suspect in the future we'll have lots of books like this, for other companies enabling this genocide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust

The same author wrote Nazi Nexus, with separate chapters for different US companies' (Ford, GM) dealings with the Nazi regime. It can always be a case of "let's not bring politics into work" attitude or the belief that "tech is a tool only, can be used for good or ill" but at least in the years leading up to WW2 there was a lot of support for eugenics, antisemitism (Henry Ford was a notorious one) and other Nazi tend…

Only recently someone here on HN posted a video about some big hall in the US, where nazi supporters gathered in droves. It made it seem like they had significant ideological footing in the US as well. Unthinkable what could have happened, if they had had even more support. Not exactly this video that was linked, but this seems to be about the same gathering: https://invidious.baczek.me/watch?v=r4zRZ7XLYSA

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

#883
post #872

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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20 seconds "to make sure the Lavender-marked target is male". And then "for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians".

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

#884

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm OK, I read this a bit differently. I read these sections: > 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 — just to make sure the Lavender-marked target is male. > According to the sources, the army knew that the minimal human supervisio…

The difference is between inaccuracy of a weapon hitting a target and inaccuracy of target selection in the first place. Remember the scene in Men In Black where the recruita do target practice? They were all accurate at hitting what they shot at but only Will Smith's character was accurate at selecting a target . This AI chooses targets; it does not fire weapons.

"Just following orders" huh? I can't believe I'm being offered Will Smith analogies as apologia for an actual genocide. This is one of the most of awful (in all senses quality, content, intention, execution) posts I've ever read in my entire life.

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

#886

The name of Lavender makes this so surreal to me for some reason. I'm of the opinion that algorithms shouldn't determine who lives and dies, but it's so common even outside of war.

I think the algorithm, in this case, makes a suggestion and then a human evaluates it. The article claims they've only looked at the sex of the target (kill if male) but also claims 90% effectiveness. I'm curious if 90% is a good number or not? War will always have collateral damages but if technology can help limit that beyond what only a human could do then I'd say it's a net positive. I think the massive efficienc…

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

#887

Next step is to automate this entire chain. Not far away from some military deploying fully autonomous identify, target & kill systems now. The pieces are all in place. Human rights and oversight are not the first priority in all militaries. AI system says person X in location Y needs to be taken out due to "terrorist association". Check if location Y is cleared for operations. Command has given general authority for…

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

#888
I don’t want to talk about the war — mostly, I don’t know about the history enough to discuss it. But I want to talk about the use of technology with the intention to exterminate life. AI shows great promises to humanity, but can also extinguish it if misused.

Thousands of years ago, gunpowder was invented. This technology enabled humans to finally break through mountains and build tunnels. It enabled the beautiful display of fireworks. But the misuse of this technology ultimately leads to destructions of cultures and civilizations.

This latest development with AI as implemented in Lavender — is one that’s exceptionally dangerous. This latest misuse of technology should concern all.

We must not allow the proliferation of this brilliant technology to be used for the purpose of destruction. It concerns me greatly.

I hope that we could resolve conflicts and differences in ways that are civil.

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

#889
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."

They permitted larger numbers of civilians being killed in the pursuit of terrorist barbarics who raped and murdered and dragged babies with their mothers into underground dungeons, and praised themselves for that while hiding between civilians.

You do realize this problem didn't start on October 7?

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

#890

So an article by an organization that is pro-palestinian (“working to oppose occupation and apartheid”) publishes a story relying on multiple anonymous sources - Is there any reason we shouldn’t consider this propaganda? has this magazine ever published a story that goes against their preferred narrative?

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