Israel is progressing in harnessing artificial intelligence's (AI) power in its military applications. A retired army general spoke about their plans for the country.
Israel Aims To Be an AI Superpower
An organization specifically focused on military robots has been established within the ministry, and this year's funding for related research and development is at an all-time high, according to former army general Eyal Zamir, Reuters reported.
Some believe that AI will revolutionize fighting on the battlefield in the near future. Zamir spoke at the annual Herzliya Conference on international security and identified two deep learning fields being worked on by the civilian AI businesses, GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) and AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), which may one day have military uses.
According to Zamir, these may involve platforms that attack in swarms or combat systems that can function autonomously, data fusion, quick decision-making support, and platforms that can operate on a scale unlike anything we have ever witnessed.
Some autonomous systems already in use have been made public by the Israeli military. It stated that robot surveillance jeeps would assist in policing the Gaza Strip border in 2021.
This month, the government-owned Israel Aerospace Industries showcased a self-contained intelligence-gathering submarine that, according to the company, has already logged "thousands of hours" of operation.
Zamir attributed Israel's success in cyber warfare-which is widely thought to have been employed against Iranian nuclear facilities, to a quick and accurate assessment of the defense, economic, national, and international components.
According to Zamir, their mission is to turn the country into an "AI superpower." They also want to lead the extremely small group of nations that make up this club.
Israel Uses AI-Powered Surveillance
As mentioned, the nation has been relying on AI. Israel is increasingly using AI-powered surveillance for facial recognition to track Palestinians and restrict passengers through key checkpoints, The New York Times reported.
Palestinians must first pass through high-fenced checkpoints in Hebron, where they must appear in front of facial recognition cameras. According to the report by Amnesty International, as their faces are scanned, the software, known as Red Wolf, employs a color-coded system of green, yellow, and red to direct soldiers on whether to let the individual go, halt them for questioning, or arrest them. Soldiers train the technology by entering their personal data into the database when the program cannot recognize someone.
Although Israel has traditionally imposed restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement, technological advancements have given the government new, potent instruments. It is the most recent illustration of adopting AI-powered mass surveillance technologies globally. To acquire the ability to recognize people's faces from various picture sources.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces, which play a prominent role in the West Bank's occupied regions, claimed that while carrying out vital security and intelligence operations, it makes great efforts to minimize harm to the daily activities of the Palestinian population. Naturally, it was stated that we cannot allude to operational and intelligence capabilities when discussing facial recognition.
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