Since writing my last article about the controlled opposition to the AI Dilemma, I came across a more recent news story about AI being used by Israel to determine who is or isn’t a threat in Gaza.
This news story, if true, very much contributes to the original concern I wrote about with AI technology being used by governments in very disturbing ways.
What I find most interesting about this latest news story is the partisan way it is being reported. In an internet search for the story, I find traditionally liberal websites (CNN, Guardian, Democracy Now, the Economist (?)etc…) all running the story. In my search, I did not find this story being reported in the news feeds from Fox, Tucker Carlson, or any of the other conservative sites or by “free speech” proponents, like Elon Musk, who have been perceived as “getting the word out” about this very concern. (See the screenshot below from that search).
This discovery, I think, contributes to my thesis about the Hegelian Dialectic control of the narratives; specifically, about Israel and AI. With all the interest from “right wingers” on the matter of AI and the various surveillance technologies, brought to our attention by those on the conservative side of the two-party paradigm (along with the perceived “red pilling” we’ve been getting from right wing alternative pundits), you would think they would be all over it. So… why do we only hear crickets? Is it because it involves the conservative’s Israeli sacred cow?
Following huge attention to the concerns with AI, as detailed by Elon Musk to Tucker Carlson in an April 2023 interview, and given everything detailed in his interview with Mike Benz, you would think that Tucker Carlson, more than most, would be giving this story some attention. It’s probably the clearest example of the technology being used in the most disturbing way by an existing government with unequal access to the technology; a government that is employing total surveillance over the citizens of Gaza and using that violation of privacy to target them. And from “AI alarmist” Elon Musk?… crickets!
Another good question to ask would be, why has the left been given the green light to run this story? Determining that would necessitate parsing out the reporting to see where that side of the narrative is headed. I don’t, for a second, think that the most prominent and syndicated voices on the left are sincerely outraged by what Israel is doing to the people of Gaza and the West Bank. If they were they would have already joined the many genuine liberal voices calling for Biden to withhold US aid to Israel or, additionally, impose sanctions on them, until they comply with human rights standards and end the apartheid.
Ultimately, what should be in the back of everyone’s mind is the follow-on consequences of this application of AI. Like so many of the indigenous peoples of the world, Palestinian territories under occupation, are used as testing grounds for tech developments. (Perhaps Tristan Harriss could share some of his thoughts on the Islanders in the South Pacific and their experience with being Guinea pigs for first world/ colonial nations, with unequal technology access, working to develop nuclear explosives for follow on uses).
Unfortunately, what is left out of the reporting, is any information on who specifically, tech-industrywise, is behind the development of the Lavendar program. This article from “Defense Post” penned in July, 2023, prior to the Israel-Hamas war that started in October, 2023, does provide a little bit of worthwhile insight.
Article Excerpt:
Sources admitted to Bloomberg that the cutting-edge AI system is not subject to international or state-level regulation.
It also fuels concerns among military observers about the potential consequences of relying heavily on autonomous systems.
“If there is a mistake in the calculation of the AI, and if the AI is not explainable, then who do we blame for the mistake?” Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor Tal Mimran wondered. “You can wipe out an entire family based on a mistake.”
Modern Indigenous Perspectives 