Israel Deploys Advanced Military Artificial Intelligence in Gaza Conflict

Israel’s army has deployed some AI-enabled military technology in combat for the first time in Gaza, with senior defense official told AFP new tech was destroying enemy drones and mapping Hamas’ vast tunnel network. A bright spot in Israel’s otherwise dire tech industry, new defense technologies accounted for 18% of GDP in 2022, but the war in Gaza wreaked havoc with an estimated 8% of the workforce called up to fight. The rising civilian death toll shows that much greater oversight is needed over the use of new forms of defense tech, arms expert at Human Rights Watch Mary Wareham told AFP. The conflict has raised human rights concerns but also cemented Israel’s status as a world-leading manufacturer of cutting-edge defense systems. Israel’s military response has killed nearly 28,000 people in Gaza according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry. The conflict has also seen the army using new tech to shoot down drones. Another system to neutralize drones involves deploying a friendly drone with a net that it can throw around the enemy craft to neutralize it. A pillar of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to “destroy” Hamas is quickly mapping the underground tunnel network where Israel says the group’s fighters are hiding and holding hostages. The network is so vast that the army has dubbed it the “Gaza Metro,” and a recent study by US military academy West Point said there were 1,300 tunnels stretching over 500 kilometers.