Israel’s Use of AI in Gaza Sparks Protest at Tech Companies in the U.S.
Technology Policy Brief #148 | Mindy Spatt
The Israeli military uses Artificial Intelligence to find and target Hamas fighters, but with a civilian death toll estimated at 52,000, critics allege the system is not reliable and may even be providing cover for widespread bombing and ethnic cleansing. And that US companies are complicit.
Analysis
The use of Artificial Intelligence has changed the way Israel’s war is being waged by dramatically increasing the number of “targets” identified by the Army. The Israeli Defense Forces gather data from cell phone messages, satellite imagery, drone footage, and seismic sensors. In one report, an unnamed Israeli Defense officer said AI can suggest 200 targets in 10-12 days, a huge change from the human-led effort that took almost a year to find 50-100 targets.
But how reliable are those targets, presumably Hamas fighters rather than medics, aid workers, and journalists, hundreds of whom have been killed?
Israel estimates roughly 20,000 of the 52,000 dead in Gaza are Hamas fighters. Hamas says the number is smaller. Israel has often exaggerated the number, including in an example below. Regardless, the targeting seems wide, some advocates allege, deliberately so.
While the IDF has its own AI system, it is increasingly relying on American companies. Google’s contracts with the Israeli government have been the subject of employee protests for years. ( see Technology Policy Brief # 97 Google Cloud’s AI Conference Draws Protestors). Now, attention has turned to Microsoft.
In January, the investigative news site Drop Site released an in-depth report based on leaked documents proving that Israel’s use of Microsoft’s cloud services and artificial intelligence substantially increased after October 7. It also uncovered $10 million worth of contracts between the IDF and US companies.
Another report by the Associated Press “uncovered exclusive details about how Israel was using commercial AI models from U.S. tech giants in its war.” AP’s reporting also “linked AI-driven targeting to the wrongful killing of civilians, including a Lebanese family with children.”
One unnamed intelligence officer told AP that AI translations between Hebrew and Arabic can be incorrect and lead to incorrect targeting.” Additional problems identified in the report included faulty data and flawed algorithms. The report described an incident where a family had deliberately had their small children play outside their home in Gaza before evacuating, so the drones would show the Israelis that there were children in their car. Just the same, an Israeli airstrike hit it directly, killing all three of the small girls.
According to AP, “the day after the family was hit, the Israeli military released video of the strike along with similar videos and photos. A statement released said Israeli fighter jets had struck ‘just over 450 Hamas targets.”
Back in the US, a speech by Microsoft CEO Musta Suleyman at the company’s 50th anniversary celebration was interrupted by Ibtihal Aboussad, who shouted, “Mustafa, shame on you. Fifty thousand people have died, and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.” A second protester, Microsoft employee Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted a later part of the event. Both were fired.
Over at Meta, Saima Akhter said reports of censorship of pro-Palestinian content led Meta staff to question upper management about the practice. Akhter claims her activism on the issue led to her firing.
Commentator Lucy Suchman, writing for the nonprofit AI Now Institute more than a year ago believes “The evidence from Gaza, where, as of this writing civilian casualties have surpassed 25,000 including over 10,000 children and destruction of roughly 70% of Gaza’s buildings and critical infrastructure, the gospel of AI-enabled precision and accuracy has now been revealed as a pretext for the acceleration of unrestrained and criminal acts of killing.”
Engagement Resources
- Lucy Suchman, The Algorithmically Accelerated Killing Machine, Jan. 24 2024
https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/the-algorithmically-accelerated-killing-machine - Questions and Answers: Israeli Military’s Use of Digital Tools in Gaza, Sept. 10, 2024,
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/09/10/questions-and-answers-israeli-militarys-use-digital-tools-gaza - Noah Sylvia, The Israel Defense Forces’ Use of AI in Gaza: A Case of Misplaced Purpose, 4 July 2024,
https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/israel-defense-forces-use-ai-gaza-case-misplaced-purpose - Michael Beisecker, Sam Mednick and Garrance Burke, As Israel Uses US-Made AI Models In War, Concerns Arise About Tech’s Role In Who Lives And Who Dies, Feb. 18, 2025
https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-ai-technology-737bc17af7b03e98c29cec4e15d0f108