UN Chief Raises Alarm over Israel's Use of AI in Gaza Strikes
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres voiced grave concerns on Friday regarding Israel's deployment of artificial intelligence in identifying targets in Gaza, which has led to numerous civilian fatalities.
A report by independent magazine +972 revealed Israel's utilization of AI for target identification in Gaza, sometimes with as little as 20 seconds of human oversight.
Guterres said that he was "deeply troubled by reports that the Israeli military's bombing campaign includes Artificial Intelligence as a tool in the identification of targets, particularly in densely populated residential areas, resulting in a high level of civilian casualties."
He emphasized that no aspect of decisions impacting entire families' lives should rely solely on algorithmic calculations.
According to +972's findings, the Israeli army designated tens of thousands of Gazans as “suspects for assassination” using an AI targeting system with “little human oversight and a permissive policy for casualties”.
The report highlighted a system known as Lavender, which, according to six Israeli intelligence officers, played a central role in the extensive bombing of Palestinians, especially in the early stages of the war.
"According to the sources, its influence on the military's operations was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine 'as if it were a human decision'," +972 reported.
Two sources said "the army also decided during the first weeks of the war that, for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians".
If "the target was a senior Hamas official... the army on several occasions authorized the killing of more than 100 civilians," it added.
The Israeli army reportedly treated the outputs of the AI machine as equivalent to human decisions, with authorization for significant civilian casualties associated with targeted individuals.
The Israeli military began a military operation against the besieged enclave on October 7, resulting in substantial casualties on Palestinian civilians.
Israel's campaign in Gaza has claimed at least 33,091 Palestinian lives and injured 75,750 others. The United Nations expressed concern about a potential humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.
Israel's emphasis on AI-powered targeting escalated following the 2021 war, with military commanders heralding it as the world's "first AI war."
However, concerns have been raised regarding the ethical implications and level of human control over AI systems in warfare.
Alessandro Accorsi, a senior analyst at Crisis Group, described the revelations as "very concerning," suggesting a low degree of human oversight.
Human rights lawyer Johann Soufi characterized the methods outlined in the +972 article as "undeniably war crimes," potentially constituting crimes against humanity due to the high civilian casualties.
