I’m still in disbelief that there are still people on social media platforms telling others it’s not a genocide and voting for red/blue team will make it better. I often feel like an alien dropped in some weird place. And why I appreciate your sit reps with Jon and others just to feel like I’m not going mad.
"That’s why I never saw the point of the supposedly groundbreaking stories about Lavender AI or the Where’s Daddy algorithm for killing people in Gaza. Really? Is an algorithm driving the bulldozer over hundreds of people?"
Let me share two critical points from the interview on the function of "AI" systems within the genocidal war machine. These points resonate deeply with the problem of getting people to murder other people on a large scale and the psychological and moral toll on the foot soldiers ordered to commit genocide:
(1) Machine learning systems provide target lists much faster and do not run out of targets (which occurred after a few weeks in previous wars on Gaza). Naturally the military "value" of an AI target designation are much poorer than those compiled by a human intelligence officer whose function the system is designed to simulate. However, this is apparently a feature, not a bug, as it allows the leadership to order what amounts to carpet bombing of highly populated civilian areas without issuing explicit orders to do so (which could get them sued for war crimes) and without directly breaking military protocols and rules of engagement (which could lead to breakdown of discipline).
(2) Machine learning systems in the Israeli military are not trained to pick "correct" targets, they are instead optimized to get a human operator to sign off on operations. Note that the machine learning systems are designed by ex-military intelligence officers (the military to startup pipeline) who are well positioned to design systems to fit in and effectively subvert military intelligence practices. [IDF procedures were already worse than US rules of engagement which failed to prevent massacres in occupied Iraq...].
[Machine learning systems need training data on which to optimize a reward function. Large Language Models receive the beginning of a known text and models are rewarded on relative success on predicting the next word in the sequence . A system thus trained can generate new texts from prompts essentially as a statistical average of previous texts.]
Compiling training data based on the degree of military "success" of a given strike would involve follow-up reporting that Greg Stoker says the IDF doesn't even do at all (cf his recent interview with Justin on the AEP). Instead, the IDF is already sitting on a pile of previous target designations that were overruled by human operators and a pile of target designations that were signed off on.
According to Shir Hever, they simply declared that getting the green light for an operation is itself the goal of the system and trained it to craft target designations (based on text clippings taken from intelligence reports) in whichever way would most likely lead to a human operator waving it through: Since it is hard work to diligently read through the thousands of target designations produced daily by the gibberish machine, human operators tend to decide by title and general framing. E.g. Israeli intelligence officers may get second thoughts and decide to actually read the target designation report (and notice that it is AI gibberish) if the target is a Palestinian woman; so computer generated target designations come to include language such as "target is a known male Hamas militant" wherever possible.
Some of Shir's points necessarily involve conjecture and I have not seen them elsewhere (and he is an economic rather than military analyst). From my understanding of machine learning systems his descriptions sound all too plausible, however. Clearly this dystopian implementation of "AI" greatly exacerbates the grotesque amount of suffering created directly by the bombings; it also is unlikely to "solve" the problem of high suicide rates of the key human cogs in the genocide machine...
I agree that there’s no point in respectful conversation with génocidaires…
But it is satisfying to see if you can push some buttons - try to demoralize them for supporting such an evil cause. I personally recommend bringing up someone like Meir Ben Shatrit to really make them squirm. Ask them if they’re willing to invest in long term Israel bonds - letting Bezalel Smotrich handle their financial future. Could be juvenile but it’s interesting to find their personal insecurities.
When 972 zine talked about AI determining which block in Gaza should get bombed earlier in this genocidal period, i thought that they(we?) just wanted to avoid any responsibilities for their(our?) actions at any cost and all are AI and Ai running drone's fault. The same attitude with the Israeli army CNN published(and you interpreted) . To conclude, no time for any discussion with pro genocide shibboleths who has no ability to recognise their own actions. Thank you so much for sharing the careful & precious thought.
This is a point well taken. Technical discussions tend to devolve into normalization of the inexcusable.
However, I do think the 972 article backfired in that regard, they couldn't resist the Skynet imagery: people are assigned to be killed by a machine en masse.
Generally, one would like to hope that more people react with sheer horror to such literal banality of evil - the Eichmanns of our time (those who assign people to be genocided) being actual machine learning algorithms...
If nothing else the so called "tech" community (correctly) fear yet further image problems.
strange, YouTube keeps deleting a comment I made about Logistics on your YouTube Post "Gaza / Lebanon War Sit Rep Day 384 / 38: Why isn't Israel advancing?"
The reason Israel is stuck is logistics. The logistics tail for keeping an expeditionary force of 500,000 men (of which usually only 100,000 would be in direct combat) alive and functioning is huge and vulnerable (which is why for example Russia is fighting the way it does in Ukraine, throwing that much artillery needs railroad logistics up to the last 30 or so miles, and railroads are easier to interdict with frequent counter-artilleries. If the existing front line is already in active mortar range, much less big tube range, that means no depot of food, fuel, ammo, no field repair center, etc. Nothing is safe and able to function until they can clear it out. Since they have not, then they could only punch through and then have to make an immediate retreat. Nato's plans to assault the Soviet Union was kabuki theater, just as claims that Russia would assault the west (though frankly if NATO keeps disarming itself, without a nuclear strike on NATO territory by NATO forces, then maybe, I can't see Europeans fighting in the street to defend their governments).
They definitely are not worth counter-productive efforts of commenting directly on their posts which simple boosts them in the algorithms. Sometimes I wish people would think twice about helping out the trolls and instead repost on their own good stuff like found here.
Oh. Violence will be massive with ETFs and Bitcoin a la Jewish First Larry Fink.
The violence of this dirty Jewish State of Murdering Maiming Starving Occuping Palestine is from the bottom of the barrel baton rapist Jewish cop all the way to Zucker and his project of social control.
I read this article before listening to your recent and helpful tankie therapy session. I feel embarrassed in having a PhD and being so woefully uneducated before the Al-Aqsa flood operation. But feeling embarrassed may be what the imperialists and all of their many supporters wish. In any event, the point about the benefit of a non-imperialist non-genocidal narrative in modern times is true. We just have to find it and use it.
Regarding your point about being attentive to genocidal narratives, I was watching a documentary about Celts online. I don’t know if I should give them the benefit of the doubt, but the filmmakers seemed sympathetic to the indigenous peoples, and also their resistance. I say “seem” because they unwittingly—or not—repeated some points from the imperial narrative. But It’s the only literary narrative that’s survived; we do have an archaeological “narrative” though, which shows Celts were already urbanizing, the Romans probably retarded Celtic prosperity if anything. Regardless, why should I give any representative of any settler-colonial project the benefit of the doubt, present or past? Caesar says that the Celts practiced human sacrifice (cf. atrocity propaganda about Hamas and Nat Turner). When? Where? How often? Was every Celt in every village and in all their burgeoning cities diehard human-sacrificers? Who was he to talk about human sacrifice? The man sacrificed hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions—not to a deity—but for his own greed and vanity. F Caesar, F Netanyahu, and F all future imperialist warlords until the end of time, and all their slavish admirers. Thanks again for encouraging people to reappraise and think about what we’ve read, and what will be thrown at us in days to come, as they try to literally kill or deport literally every last Palestinian from Gaza because they won’t surrender.
I’m still in disbelief that there are still people on social media platforms telling others it’s not a genocide and voting for red/blue team will make it better. I often feel like an alien dropped in some weird place. And why I appreciate your sit reps with Jon and others just to feel like I’m not going mad.
"That’s why I never saw the point of the supposedly groundbreaking stories about Lavender AI or the Where’s Daddy algorithm for killing people in Gaza. Really? Is an algorithm driving the bulldozer over hundreds of people?"
I recommend this interview by Shir Hever in the analysis: https://theanalysis.news/gaza-ai-targeting-a-cover-for-genocide/
Let me share two critical points from the interview on the function of "AI" systems within the genocidal war machine. These points resonate deeply with the problem of getting people to murder other people on a large scale and the psychological and moral toll on the foot soldiers ordered to commit genocide:
(1) Machine learning systems provide target lists much faster and do not run out of targets (which occurred after a few weeks in previous wars on Gaza). Naturally the military "value" of an AI target designation are much poorer than those compiled by a human intelligence officer whose function the system is designed to simulate. However, this is apparently a feature, not a bug, as it allows the leadership to order what amounts to carpet bombing of highly populated civilian areas without issuing explicit orders to do so (which could get them sued for war crimes) and without directly breaking military protocols and rules of engagement (which could lead to breakdown of discipline).
This is mostly drawn from a previous story in 972 magazine that has more relevant framing than the one linked here by Justin: https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/
(2) Machine learning systems in the Israeli military are not trained to pick "correct" targets, they are instead optimized to get a human operator to sign off on operations. Note that the machine learning systems are designed by ex-military intelligence officers (the military to startup pipeline) who are well positioned to design systems to fit in and effectively subvert military intelligence practices. [IDF procedures were already worse than US rules of engagement which failed to prevent massacres in occupied Iraq...].
[Machine learning systems need training data on which to optimize a reward function. Large Language Models receive the beginning of a known text and models are rewarded on relative success on predicting the next word in the sequence . A system thus trained can generate new texts from prompts essentially as a statistical average of previous texts.]
Compiling training data based on the degree of military "success" of a given strike would involve follow-up reporting that Greg Stoker says the IDF doesn't even do at all (cf his recent interview with Justin on the AEP). Instead, the IDF is already sitting on a pile of previous target designations that were overruled by human operators and a pile of target designations that were signed off on.
According to Shir Hever, they simply declared that getting the green light for an operation is itself the goal of the system and trained it to craft target designations (based on text clippings taken from intelligence reports) in whichever way would most likely lead to a human operator waving it through: Since it is hard work to diligently read through the thousands of target designations produced daily by the gibberish machine, human operators tend to decide by title and general framing. E.g. Israeli intelligence officers may get second thoughts and decide to actually read the target designation report (and notice that it is AI gibberish) if the target is a Palestinian woman; so computer generated target designations come to include language such as "target is a known male Hamas militant" wherever possible.
Some of Shir's points necessarily involve conjecture and I have not seen them elsewhere (and he is an economic rather than military analyst). From my understanding of machine learning systems his descriptions sound all too plausible, however. Clearly this dystopian implementation of "AI" greatly exacerbates the grotesque amount of suffering created directly by the bombings; it also is unlikely to "solve" the problem of high suicide rates of the key human cogs in the genocide machine...
That image is really distressing! I don't have words to describe how I feel.
Well said, and well written.
I agree that there’s no point in respectful conversation with génocidaires…
But it is satisfying to see if you can push some buttons - try to demoralize them for supporting such an evil cause. I personally recommend bringing up someone like Meir Ben Shatrit to really make them squirm. Ask them if they’re willing to invest in long term Israel bonds - letting Bezalel Smotrich handle their financial future. Could be juvenile but it’s interesting to find their personal insecurities.
When 972 zine talked about AI determining which block in Gaza should get bombed earlier in this genocidal period, i thought that they(we?) just wanted to avoid any responsibilities for their(our?) actions at any cost and all are AI and Ai running drone's fault. The same attitude with the Israeli army CNN published(and you interpreted) . To conclude, no time for any discussion with pro genocide shibboleths who has no ability to recognise their own actions. Thank you so much for sharing the careful & precious thought.
This is a point well taken. Technical discussions tend to devolve into normalization of the inexcusable.
However, I do think the 972 article backfired in that regard, they couldn't resist the Skynet imagery: people are assigned to be killed by a machine en masse.
Generally, one would like to hope that more people react with sheer horror to such literal banality of evil - the Eichmanns of our time (those who assign people to be genocided) being actual machine learning algorithms...
If nothing else the so called "tech" community (correctly) fear yet further image problems.
strange, YouTube keeps deleting a comment I made about Logistics on your YouTube Post "Gaza / Lebanon War Sit Rep Day 384 / 38: Why isn't Israel advancing?"
The reason Israel is stuck is logistics. The logistics tail for keeping an expeditionary force of 500,000 men (of which usually only 100,000 would be in direct combat) alive and functioning is huge and vulnerable (which is why for example Russia is fighting the way it does in Ukraine, throwing that much artillery needs railroad logistics up to the last 30 or so miles, and railroads are easier to interdict with frequent counter-artilleries. If the existing front line is already in active mortar range, much less big tube range, that means no depot of food, fuel, ammo, no field repair center, etc. Nothing is safe and able to function until they can clear it out. Since they have not, then they could only punch through and then have to make an immediate retreat. Nato's plans to assault the Soviet Union was kabuki theater, just as claims that Russia would assault the west (though frankly if NATO keeps disarming itself, without a nuclear strike on NATO territory by NATO forces, then maybe, I can't see Europeans fighting in the street to defend their governments).
They definitely are not worth counter-productive efforts of commenting directly on their posts which simple boosts them in the algorithms. Sometimes I wish people would think twice about helping out the trolls and instead repost on their own good stuff like found here.
Thank you. Appreciated your interview with EI yesterday. Keep up the good work.
Oh. Violence will be massive with ETFs and Bitcoin a la Jewish First Larry Fink.
The violence of this dirty Jewish State of Murdering Maiming Starving Occuping Palestine is from the bottom of the barrel baton rapist Jewish cop all the way to Zucker and his project of social control.
https://open.substack.com/pub/paulokirk/p/dont-look-west-old-cornel-hes-more?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=5i319
They say ai only to make themself more humans but then post all thier vile acts on social media.
I read this article before listening to your recent and helpful tankie therapy session. I feel embarrassed in having a PhD and being so woefully uneducated before the Al-Aqsa flood operation. But feeling embarrassed may be what the imperialists and all of their many supporters wish. In any event, the point about the benefit of a non-imperialist non-genocidal narrative in modern times is true. We just have to find it and use it.
Regarding your point about being attentive to genocidal narratives, I was watching a documentary about Celts online. I don’t know if I should give them the benefit of the doubt, but the filmmakers seemed sympathetic to the indigenous peoples, and also their resistance. I say “seem” because they unwittingly—or not—repeated some points from the imperial narrative. But It’s the only literary narrative that’s survived; we do have an archaeological “narrative” though, which shows Celts were already urbanizing, the Romans probably retarded Celtic prosperity if anything. Regardless, why should I give any representative of any settler-colonial project the benefit of the doubt, present or past? Caesar says that the Celts practiced human sacrifice (cf. atrocity propaganda about Hamas and Nat Turner). When? Where? How often? Was every Celt in every village and in all their burgeoning cities diehard human-sacrificers? Who was he to talk about human sacrifice? The man sacrificed hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions—not to a deity—but for his own greed and vanity. F Caesar, F Netanyahu, and F all future imperialist warlords until the end of time, and all their slavish admirers. Thanks again for encouraging people to reappraise and think about what we’ve read, and what will be thrown at us in days to come, as they try to literally kill or deport literally every last Palestinian from Gaza because they won’t surrender.