According to AFP on February 10, the Israeli army has recently adopted some artificial intelligence (AI) military technology in the fighting in the Gaza Strip for the first time, raising concerns about the use of autonomy in modern warfare.
The Israeli military has hinted at the use of the new technology, with chief military spokesman Daniel Hagari saying last month that Israeli forces are "fighting both on the ground and underground," the report said.
A senior Israeli defense officer** said the techniques were destroying enemy drones and were being used to map Hamas's vast network of tunnels in Gaza.
New defense technologies, including AI-powered sights and drones, have been a bright spot during a downturn in Israel's tech sector.
In 2022, the tech sector accounted for 18% of Israel's gross domestic product, but the war in Gaza wreaked havoc, with an estimated 8% of tech workers being drafted into the war.
Avi Hassan, CEO of the Venture Capital Data Center, an Israeli tech incubator, said: "Overall, the war in Gaza presents a threat, but also an opportunity to test emerging technologies on the battlefield. In this war, both on the battlefield and in hospitals, technologies that had not been used in the past were used. ”
But Mary Wareham, an expert at Human Rights Watch, told AFP that the rising civilian death toll shows the need for stricter regulation of the use of new defense technologies.
"Right now, we are facing the worst deaths and the worst of the pain – some of which is caused by new technologies," she said. ”
Last December, more than 150 countries and territories supported a UN resolution. The resolution identifies "serious challenges and problems" posed by new military technologies, including "artificial intelligence and autonomy in the system."
According to Agence France-Presse, based on official data, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 last year, killing about 1,160 people inside Israel, most of them civilians. Hamas has also taken about 250 hostages, and Israel says some 132 remain in Gaza, at least 29 of whom are believed to have been killed.
According to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Israeli military counterattacks have caused nearly 2 in Gaza80,000 people died, mostly women and children.
Like many other modern conflicts, this war has been affected by the proliferation of cheap drones, which have made air strikes easier and cheaper.
On October 7 last year, Hamas used drones to drop explosives, while Israel used new technology to shoot them down.
For the first time, the Israeli army has used an AI-powered optical sight made by Israeli start-up Smart Marksman, which can be mounted on rifles and machine guns, among others.
"This helps our soldiers intercept drones, because Hamas uses a lot of drones," said Israel's senior defense guard**. This technique allows every ordinary soldier to become a sniper. ”
Another means of suppressing UAVs includes the deployment of UAVs with nets, which can cast nets around enemy UAVs, rendering them ineffective. "It's a battle between drones and drones, and we call them 'Angry Birds.'" ”
A pillar of support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vow to "destroy" Hamas is the swift mapping of the underground tunnel network. Israel says Hamas militants are hiding and holding hostages in a network of underground tunnels.
The network is so large that the military calls it the "Gaza Metro". A recent study by the United States Military Academy at West Point showed that there are 1,300 tunnels in Gaza, more than 500 kilometers long.
To map the tunnels, the Israeli military has turned to drones that use artificial intelligence to learn to detect humans and work underground, including one made by the Israeli startup Lobotikan that houses the drone in a casing shaped to make it easy to move.
The drone is being used in Gaza "to enter the tunnel and check the tunnel as far as communications allow," the senior Israeli defense officer** said. Compiled by Wu Mei).