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AI as an Israeli Weapon

- By Michael Biesecker

AI models from Microsoft & OpenAI were used by the IDF to help choose bombing targets in Gaza and Lebanon, an AP investigation finds.

It’s one of the first times commercial AI has been used in warfare.

The Israeli military uses AI to sift through vast troves of intelligence, intercepted communications, and surveillance to track its enemies.

After the Oct 7th operation, IDF use of Microsoft and OpenAI technology skyrocketed — spiking last March to nearly 200 times higher than before the week leading up to the 10/7 attack

The amount of IDF data it stored on Microsoft servers doubled between that time and July 2024 to more than 13.6 petabytes — roughly 350 times the digital memory needed to store every book in the Library of Congress.

Advanced AI models from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, are provided through Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, where they are purchased by the IDF, the documents and data show. Microsoft has been OpenAI’s largest investor.

OpenAI said it does not have a partnership with IDF and its usage policies say its customers should not use its products to develop weapons or harm people. However, OpenAI recently changed its terms of use to allow for “national security use cases that align with our mission.”

The IDF uses Microsoft Azure to compile information gathered through mass surveillance, which it transcribes and translates, including phone calls, texts and audio messages, an Israeli intelligence officer who works with the systems told AP. The Microsoft data shows that since the 7 October operation, the IDF has made heavy use of transcription and translation tools and OpenAI models, although it does not detail which. Typically, AI models that transcribe and translate perform best in English.

OpenAI's AI-powered translation model Whisper, which can transcribe and translate into multiple languages including Arabic, can make up text that no one said, including adding racial commentary and violent rhetoric, as detailed in an earlier AP report.

One three-year contract between Microsoft and IDF began in 2021 and was worth $133 million, making it the company’s second largest military customer globally after the U.S., according to a document reviewed by the AP

The relationship between tech companies and IDF also has ramifications in the U.S., where some employees have raised ethical concerns. In October, Microsoft fired two workers for helping organize an unauthorized lunchtime vigil for Palestinian refugees.

“Cloud and AI are the bombs and bullets of the 21st century," said Hossam Mabed, one of the employees fired over the vigil.

"Microsoft is providing the Israeli military with digital weapons to kill, maim and displace Palestinians, in the gravest moral travesty of our time.”

It’s extremely hard to identify when AI systems enable wrongful deaths.

In Nov. 2023, Hoda Hijazi was fleeing with her 3 young daughters and her mom from clashes between Israel and Hezbullah on the Lebanese border when their car was bombed.

Before they left, the adults told the girls to play in front of the house so that Israeli drones would know they were traveling with children.

The women and girls drove alongside Hijazi’s uncle, Samir Ayoub, a journalist who was caravanning in his own car.

Soon, an airstrike hit the car Hijazi was driving. It careened down a slope and burst into flames.

Ayoub managed to pull Hijazi out, but her mother — Ayoub’s sister — and the three girls — Rimas, 14, Taline, 12, and Liane, 10 — were dead.

The day after the family was hit, IDF released video of the strike with a statement that it had “struck just over 450 Hamas targets.”

AP’s visual analysis matched the the Israeli military video to satellite imagery of the location where the three girls died.

IDF denied that AI systems were used during the airstrike on the Hijazi family, but refused to answer whether AI helped select the target or whether it was wrong.

The military told AP that officials examined the incident and expressed “sorrow for the outcome.”

As tech firms seek contracts those who lost relatives seek answers. “Even with all this pain, I can’t stop asking: Why?” said Mahmoud Adnan Chour, father of the three girls.

“Why did the plane choose that car — the one filled with my children’s laughter echoing from its windows?”

🇱🇧l🇮🇱 The Lebanese army in a statement today, confirming what we all know and what some Lebanese continue to lie about:

"Noting that the enemy has not committed to a complete withdrawal from the occupied Lebanese territories in accordance with international charters and legitimacy and UN resolutions, most notably Resolution 1701."

"It is still stationed at several border points, persisting in its evasion of its obligations, and violating Lebanese sovereignty through continuous attacks on the security of Lebanon and its citizens."

🇱🇧l🇺🇸 Today the Lebanese president met the national security advisor of Trump Mike Walkz.

Oddly, no photos were shared of the meeting. In an official statement by Aoun, he mentioned he told Waltz:

- It is necessary to end the Israeli occupation in the remaining points and complete the implementation of the November 27, 2024 agreement to ensure the strengthening of stability in the south and the implementation of Resolution 1701

- It is necessary to expedite the return of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel

In return, Waltz is quoted as:

- Waltz praised the role played by the Lebanese army in deploying in the sites vacated by the Israelis, stressing that the United States is committed to Lebanon by working to establish a ceasefire and resolve outstanding issues diplomatically.

- Waltz stressed the importance of the Lebanese-American partnership and the need to strengthen it in all areas

🇱🇧 Al-Manar preemptively posted the below:

"It is expected that a video will spread that is intended to cause strife, tension and sabotage the funeral ceremonies of the two Sayyids (may God have mercy on them).

For clarification:

This evening, two girls (one of them wearing the hijab) came to the Sports City parking lot, where the funeral will take place.

One of them tore up a picture of the martyred President Rafik Hariri (may God have mercy on him) and the other girl filmed her and they fled!"

🇱🇧l🇮🇶 Sheikh Khomeini Hassan Malik in the airport is receiving the Iraqi brothers to host them in Al-Qaim guest house.

📸 The guest house isn't fancy but It'll help avoid rent and so on

🇱🇧 "Our loss of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has a great impact, we are trying to compensate for it by further affirming the solidity of the line he established and organized with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri"

Political Assistant to the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, MP Ali Hassan Khalil

"The relationship between Hezbulah and Amal is based on the project of Imam Musa al-Sadr, and its structure and pillar is the exceptional trust between Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and President Nabih Berri, which even exceeded the leadership frameworks and the lower frameworks."

"The loss of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is a loss for the Amal Movement, as well as for Hezbullah, and as well as for the Lebanese and the nation."

“Today, Sayyed Nasrallah turned his martyrdom into life, a life for his loved ones, for his people, for the nation, and that is what he wanted. If we hear him in his last speech, it is as if he was telling the martyrs, ‘Get ready, I am coming.’”

"This Sayyed. Hassan will be in this coffin that is circling the world, and he is the one the world is used to hearing from the pulpit declaring stances and other things."

"Hezbullah was able to restore its administration and maintain the foundations of communication, coordination and political management between us and it. They were not interrupted despite all the exceptional obstacles that were present in this war."

"When leader Nabih Berri learned of the martyrdom of Sayyed Nasrallah, he said: We lost a part of ourselves, I lost a part of me, I don’t know how I will adapt to it."

"A book titled Al-Barzakh, Pages of a Nation That Has Not Yet Come, will be published soon."

"Details revealed by President Nabih Berri and narrated by me personally, about meetings between us and His Eminence Sayyed Nasrallah."

"The first meeting between Sayyed Nasrallah and Speaker Berri after the July War was very private and they tried not to talk about politics much. It is the meeting that Ali Hassan Khalil said about it, “Greater than all summits.”

"The development of the relationship between President Nabih Berri and S. Hassan Nasrallah has reached the point where they have come to understand each other without restrictions, as if the veil has been removed between them."

"What the President says, the Sayyed understands, and what the Sayyed says, the President understands."

"What is the secret of the solid relationship and trust that has not wavered between two leading men and between two movements as well?"

End

🇱🇧l🇮🇷 Mahan Airlines transported the Lebanese passengers to Baghdad Airport, from where they were supposed to return to Lebanon on Middle East Airlines (MEA) flights.

However, the Lebanese airline refused to allow the passengers to carry any luggage and requested that they be transported to Lebanon without any bags.

According to a number of passengers, Middle East Airlines categorically refused to inspect the luggage and allow it to pass through the normal line to transport any bags.

Iraq then helped and transported them on their own airlines