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Pentagon says overreliance on AI contributed to missile strike on Iran school

974 points · 553 comments · devonnull

  1. legitster · · focus · HN ↗
    > It found the U.S. “failed in its obligation to do everything feasible to verify” that the school was a military objective and that the failure “went beyond mere negligence.” The report said the United States “directed the strikes at the building of the school while being aware of a substantial risk of striking a civilian object and acting recklessly as regards the possibility that this would happen.”

    Reading the details, "AI" doesn't really seem like the culprit -it's a scapegoat.

    The intelligence that it was no longer a military target never entered the target database, the team that was responsible for vetting the target list was gutted, and said team was never even consulted.

    The White House wanted 1000 targets and pulled from their database without any due diligence. Whether it was an AI call or an SQL query - this was from pure human maliciousness and incompetence.

    1. bix6 · · focus · HN ↗
      <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.propublica.org&#x2F;article&#x2F;hegseth-civilian-harm-mitigation-response-trump-defense-department" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.propublica.org&#x2F;article&#x2F;hegseth-civilian-harm-mit...
      1. legitster · · focus · HN ↗
        &gt; “No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement,” - Hegseth

        ...

        &gt; Hegseth and the commander in charge of the Iran operation, Adm. Brad Cooper, were questioned about the strike before Congress. Hegseth said the U.S. does not target civilians and would investigate

        So the administration does not intentionally target civilians, they have just stopped caring about who a civilian is.

        1. andrepd · · focus · HN ↗
          Well Israel has defined &quot;combatant&quot; as &quot;male between 14 and 55&quot;, and the Western world more or less shrugged and moved on without missing a beat. I&#x27;m not optimistic.
          1. ceejayoz · · focus · HN ↗
            That, unfortunately, originates more from the US than Israel.

            <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Military-age_male" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Military-age_male

            1. nashashmi · · focus · HN ↗
              US classifies military age at 16, not 14. You can join the US army at 16. But you cant be sent to war. No. That is different than Israel.
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