Israel’s increasing use of AI in Gaza and beyond should concern us all.
I’m quoted in an important new story by Azad Essa in Middle East Eye:
Israeli forces are using an AI weapons system in Gaza co-produced by an Indian defence company that turns machine guns and assault rifles into computerised killing machines, Middle East Eye can reveal.
According to documents and news reports seen by MEE, Israeli forces have been using the Arbel weapons system in Gaza following their devastating invasion of the enclave after the 7 October attacks on southern Israel.
Touted as a “revolutionary game changer that improves operator lethality and survivability,” the Arbel system enhances machine guns and assault weapons – such as the Israeli-produced Tavor, Carmel and Negev – into a weapon that uses algorithms to boost soldiers chances of hitting targets more accurately and efficiently.
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“One of the most revealing aspects of Israel’s mass slaughter in Gaza is that targeting civilians was the point. It was never about just going after Hamas,” Antony Loewenstein, an independent journalist who has been tracking new technologies being used in Gaza and occupied West Bank for years, told MEE.
“I have spoken to people in Gaza, I have seen the direct human impact of this kind of killing. It is horrific,” Loewenstein, the author of The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports The Technology of Occupation Around The World, added.
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Loewenstein says that until there are legal ramifications for the killing of mass killings of civilians, these so-called AI tools are only going to proliferate.
“Given that India is already Israel’s biggest buyer of weapons – the official stats suggest 40 percent to 45 percent though my guess is that the real number is higher – I am worried that this tool will be used by Indian soldiers within its own borders or for that matter exported globally,” Loewenstein said.
“I’d be worried that this kind of tool would be exported to other regimes and governments – democratic or despotic – who will use it for their own nefarious ends,” Loewenstein added.