Economic & Political Weekly
Publication Type: Journal Article
Author: Gaurika Chugh, Kavita
Abstract: The use of artificial intelligence-based tools by Israel raises serious questions about the commitment of countries to the international legal framework—specifically international humanitarian law and international human rights law—and the ethics of war. The use of AI in warfare raises pertinent legal and ethical questions as the technology is devoid of any human sentiments and emotions.
Israel’s army has developed artificial intelligence (AI)-based programmes and automated systems known as “Lavender” and “Where’s Daddy?” to target Palestinians. Lavender, an AI-enabled database, assigns risk scores to Gazans based on patterns in their personal data (for example, communication and social connections) to identify “suspected Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives” (Weise and Langer 2024). A second system, “Where’s Daddy?” uses mobile phone location tracking to notify operators when a marked individual is at home (Abraham 2024). It was reportedly designed to “look for [targets] in their family homes,” since suspects “were bombed in homes without hesitation, as a first option” (Tharoor 2024)
