Dossier No. 37, June 26, 2025; this “dossier” is a collection of short articles by the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France (translated from French)
It would have been surprising if the armies, which have led the research on AI, had not used it! The Israeli army has already implemented it (as others undoubtedly have) and is using it to designate its targets in Gaza. Using telephone data from 2.3 million Gazans, the software (Lavender) seeks to identify “typical” behaviors of Hamas members, extrapolated from known members. The target is then identified, and the army has other software to locate individuals and determine when to attack them (Where’s Daddy?) or to identify target buildings (Habsora).
Including a human in the decision-making process does not guarantee more “humanity.” In addition to the numerous biases built into the software, officers have 20 seconds to validate the decision to fire: in other words, they rely on algorithms. According to Mediapart, civilian casualties deemed “acceptable” are around 20 for a Hamas cadre and 300 for a senior official.
These deadly systems are supported by Western powers, led by the United States. But the European Union, which pretends to question the validity of its trade relations with the State of Israel, directly subsidizes military companies such as Israel Aerospace Industry as part of the supposedly civilian “Horizon” program. All the more reason to denounce the EU’s involvement in the ongoing genocide in Gaza!
Claude Felles-Crepui
