The testimony from the six intelligence officers, all of whom have been involved in using AI systems to identify Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) targets in the war, was given to journalist Yuval Abraham. Their accounts were shared exclusively with the Guardian in advance of publication.
All six said that Lavender had played a central role in the war, processing masses of data to rapidly identify potential "junior” operatives to target.
Four of the sources said that, at one stage early in the war, Lavender listed as many as 37,000 Palestinian men who had been linked by the AI system to Hamas or PIJ.
Lavender was developed by the Israel Defense Forces’ elite intelligence division, Unit 8200, which is comparable to the US’s National Security Agency or GCHQ in the UK.
After randomly sampling and cross-checking its predictions, the unit concluded Lavender had achieved a 90% accuracy rate, the sources said, leading the IDF to approve its sweeping use as a target recommendation tool.
Speaking about how the system works, some intelligence officials noted: "We were constantly being pressured: ‘Bring us more targets.’ They really shouted at us,” said one intelligence officer. "We were told: now we have to fuck up Hamas, no matter what the cost. Whatever you can, you bomb.”
www.anews.az
Follow us !
