Israel – Hamas 2024 Symposium – Beyond The Headlines: Combat Deployment of Military AI-based Systems by the IDF

It is well established that new and emerging technologies impact how States conduct military operations. Recently, we have seen notable innovations in the development and deployment of autonomous weapon systems (AWS), military use of cyberspace, and many more. However, one emerging field in which significant leaps are being observed in ongoing conflicts is nonweaponized artificial intelligence (AI) with military applications.

Recently, several Israel Defence Forces (IDF) officials acknowledged using AI-based tools for several purposes including targeting support, intelligence analysis, proactive forecasting, and streamlined command and control (C2). Against this backdrop, the current Israel-Hamas conflict has brought Israel’s deployment of such systems into the spotlight, with Habsora, or “the Gospel,” an AI-based system that is used to generate possible military targets for attack, attracting the most attention.

Reporting on the conflict suggests the IDF uses AI as a “data-driven factory” to commit “mass assassinations.” Ultimately, this commentary hinges on misunderstandings of, on the one hand, how the military functions and, on the other, what AI-powered tools realistically can and cannot do. This all too frequent misrepresentation prompts us to shed some light on systems the IDF uses on the battlefield. Putting hyperbole aside, we aim to examine these highly impactful systems and reflect on the legal and ethical considerations. In doing so, we bring to the fore what legal limitations exist on the desire to introduce new AI-based tools in practice and their actual use. In this post, we also detail the developing experience of the IDF with AI systems beyond the current conflict. We aim to join the emerging discussion on the appropriate ways to introduce AI onto the battlefield, both in relation to the Israel-Hamas conflict and beyond.