How would you feel if a machine suddenly told you that you only had 20 seconds left to live?
Israel's "Lavender" AI weapon system is such a machine that is capable of deciding a person's life and death in a short period of time.
As soon as the system went live, a "kill list" of 32,000 names was reportedly created.
Imagine that these people could be your neighbors, friends, or even family members. And all of this is based on the judgment of an AI system. This begs the question, are we really ready for machines to decide our lives and deaths?
Now, let's talk about this "lavender" system.
It was developed by Israel's 8200 Central Intelligence Gathering Force, doesn't it sound quite lofty?
However, the hidden truth behind this may not be so glorious.
The system uses a machine learning algorithm called "positive-sample unlabeled learning" to screen out members of Hamas and Jihad. Sounds precise, right?
But would you still think that when you know that this system allows for errors, even at the cost of killing civilians by mistake?
Let's talk about these errors.
The Israeli army says they are not afraid of error and even allow the killing of civilians by mistake.
Their reasoning was, what if the other person was a relative of a Hamas member or a person with the same name and surname? This kind of logic is simply a modern version of "it is better to kill a thousand by mistake than to let one go". And this logic has led to the death of hundreds of civilians.
Let us now broaden our horizons to the international community.
You might be thinking that the United States, as an ally of Israel, should prevent this from happening, right? However, according to Anthony, a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald, the United States and Australia may be the countries behind Israel's AI weapons system.
This is not groundless, and the "AI combat test" conducted by the United States on the battlefield in Ukraine is the best proof of this.
Speaking of Ukraine, we have to mention the "Meivin Plan" of the United States.
The purpose of this plan is to put the "Meiwen" intelligent system into the battlefield in Ukraine, collect intelligence through various means, and help the system quickly identify targets.
Moreover, Ukraine has also deployed a drone called the "Saker Scout", which has a highly autonomous hunting function and can decide for itself who to kill on the battlefield.
These incidents have undoubtedly increased the shadow of the credibility of Israel's AI weapon system.
However, this is not to say that the international community will sit idly by.
The United Nations finally intervened, and Guterrest issued a warning, asking all parties to show political courage and reach a ceasefire agreement as soon as possible. This shows that the international community has begun to recognize the challenges posed by AI weapon systems and is beginning to take action.
The future of AI weapon systems.
As technology evolves, AI weapon systems are likely to become more common. But are we really ready for such a future? When machines begin to decide life and death, what do humans do? This is a question worth pondering.