As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran continues, we look at how the Pentagon is using artificial intelligence in its operations. The system, known as Project Maven, relies on technology by Palantir and also incorporates the AI model Claude built by Anthropic. Israel has used similar AI targeting programs in Iran, as well as in Gaza and Lebanon.
Craig Jones, an expert on modern warfare, says AI technology is helping militaries speed up the “kill chain,” the process of identifying, approving and striking targets. “You’re reducing a massive human workload of tens of thousands of hours into seconds and minutes. You’re reducing workflows, and you’re automating human-made targeting decisions in ways which open up all kinds of problematic legal, ethical and political questions,” says Jones.
Honestly this, it feels like the real reason AI has been pushed so hard across the board is just accountability shifting. From healthcare denials to literal war crimes, doesn’t matter, an “AI” “did it” so suddenly no one is to blame.
Of course, in a functioning society we would just say the people who enacted the decision of blindly trusting the black box is the perpetrator, but we don’t, so…