‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

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. xlayn · · focus · HN ↗
      Now, ask yourself if you want AI taking decisions around your life... it will pull numbers... someone will have a "goal" of 1000 "hits" and there you go, 2-3 months in jail working to check what went wrong...

      But don't worry, the other P AI system will ensure that the first one doesn't do mistakes...

      1. TheOtherHobbes · · focus · HN ↗
        You seem to have missed the point, which is that the decision to murder a large number of innocent people was made by humans at the top of the chain of command, and 'AI' is being used as a thin pretext for that.

        The pattern matches various other acts of senseless violence against innocents in South America.

        The message isn't "We did this accidentally. We should understand how it happened, so we can make sure it doesn't happen again.".

        It's "We do this to make the point that we can, no one can stop us, and if we're challenged we're going to lie about it."

        1. roenxi · · focus · HN ↗
          > It's "We do this to make the point that we can, no one can stop us, and if we're challenged we're going to lie about it."

          FWIW, forcing people to go along with transparent lies is a popular social manoeuvre. It signals both the power of a group and the power of the person leading the lie.

          Although it is a very frustrating tendency, because honesty and realism tends to be better for the people who have the numbers. It is hard to organise real efforts around lies.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.