Future of AI warfare taking place in Israel without oversight

While the global debate around using artificial intelligence in warfare heats up, Israel has brazenly deployed AI systems against the Palestinians.

Bloomberg reported last month that the Israeli army deployed an advanced AI model called Fire Factory designed to select targets for air strikes and handle other military logistics. This wasn’t the first time Israel had used AI in combat operations.

AI deployment represents a significant shift in warfare and brings huge new risks for civilian life. Perhaps most concerning is that Israel’s use of AI is developing beyond international or state-level regulations. The future of AI warfare is taking shape right now, and few have a say in how it develops. 

According to Israeli officials, the AI programs in operation use large data sets to make decisions about targets, equipment, munition loads, and schedules. While these items might seem mundane, we must consider how Israel collects this information and the military’s track record in protecting civilian populations. 

Israel has administered a total military occupation over Palestinian populations in the West Bank and Gaza since 1967. Every aspect of Palestinian life in these territories is overseen by the Israeli military, down to the amount of calories Gazans consume.

As a result of its complex occupation infrastructure, Israel has compiled vast amounts of data on Palestinians. These data have been a vital fuel for the rise of Israel’s vaunted technology sector, as many of the country’s leading tech executives learned their craft in military intelligence units that put these data to use. 

Military and defense contractors have created a hugely profitable AI warfare sector using the West Bank and Gaza as weapons testing laboratories. Across the Palestinian territories, Israel collects and analyzes data from drones, surveillance footage, satellite imagery, electronic signals, online communications, and other platforms collected by the military.

It’s even rumored that the idea for Waze – the mapping software developed by graduates of Israel’s military intelligence sector and sold to Google for US$1.1 billion in 2013 – was derived from mapping software designed to track Palestinians in the West Bank. 

It’s abundantly clear that Israel has plenty of data that could be fed into AI models designed to maintain the occupation. Indeed, the Israeli military argues that its AI models are overseen by soldiers who vet and approve targets and air-raid plans.

The military has also implicitly argued that its programs could suppress human analytic capabilities and minimize casualties thanks to the sheer amount of data Israel collects. Analysts are concerned that these semi-autonomous AI systems could become autonomous systems quickly with no oversight. At that point, computer programs will decide Palestinian life and death. 

There are additional factors in the debate. Israel’s AI war technology is not subject to international or state-level regulation. The Israeli public has little direct knowledge of these systems and say over how they should be used. One could imagine the international outcry if Iran or Syria deployed a similar system. 

While the exact nature of Israel’s AI programs remains secret, the military has boasted about its use of AI. The military called its 11-day assault on the Gaza Strip in 2021 the world’s first “AI war.”

Given the profoundly controversial nature of AI warfare and unresolved ethical concerns about these platforms, it’s shocking but hardly surprising that the Israeli military is so flippant about its use of these programs. After all, Israel has seldom followed international law regarding warfare and its understanding of defense. 

There are other challenges regarding Israel’s deployment of these weapons. Israel has a poor track record when it comes to the protection of Palestinian life.

While the country’s public relations officials go to great lengths to say that the military operates morally and protects civilians, the fact is that even the most “enlightened” military occupation is antithetical to the notion of human rights. In the social-media age, even Israel’s most ardent supporters question how the country sometimes behaves toward Palestinians.

Perhaps the universal concern these programs raise is that Palestinians haven’t consented to giving their data over to Israel and its AI platforms. There is a morbid parable here for how society hasn’t really consented to our data being used to create many types of AI programs.

Of course, there are terms and conditions that we agree to for services like Gmail, but we don’t have a viable choice to opt out unless we forgo the Internet altogether.

For Palestinians, the situation is obviously much more grave. Every aspect of their lives, from when they go to work to how much food they consume, is funneled to Israeli data centers and used to determine military operations. Is this extreme future waiting for more societies around the world?

The direction of travel and the development of these systems beyond regulation doesn’t bode well.

This article was provided by Syndication Bureau, which holds copyright.

Continue Reading

Upper Bukit Timah killings: Father admits to strangling twin sons with autism to ‘relieve’ burdens

SINGAPORE: A man has admitted to killing his 11-year-old twin sons in January 2022, in a tragedy that shook the nation.

He claimed that he did so because he felt his wife had given up on the two boys, who had autism, and that killing them would take away his wife’s burdens.

He also feared that his sons would be bullied by others, and that no one would take care of them after he and his wife died.

Xavier Yap Jung Houn, 50, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Aug 15) to two charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, for strangling Yap Kai Shern Aston and Yap E Chern Ethan to death near a playground in Upper Bukit Timah.

He had originally been charged with murder, but this was downgraded to culpable homicide after it was revealed that he was suffering from major depressive disorder of moderate severity, around the time of the killings.

BACKGROUND OF WHAT HAPPENED

The court heard that Yap lived with his twin sons and his wife. A domestic helper was also employed to care for the boys.

The couple suspected that the boys had autism spectrum disorder since they were two years old. They were formally diagnosed with global development delay and autism spectrum disorder in May 2017.

The twins were recommended to be placed in a special education school, but their mother in particular had difficulty accepting their condition, the prosecution said.

In 2019 the boys, aged nine, were enrolled in Primary 1 at a mainstream primary school while they were still non-verbal.

Because of the children’s learning difficulties, the boys’ mother and maid would each accompany one child to classes. When their mother was not available, one son would not attend school.

The mother also did not involve their father in decisions on which school the boys should attend, or school activities such as meet-the-parent sessions.

Yap had a good relationship with his sons, the court heard. He did not usually discipline them with physical force. He would help prepare their daily necessities and bought them items they wanted.

He also became more involved in their studies and spent more time with them after they enrolled in primary school.

But Yap became increasingly concerned about his sons around 2019 or 2020, and was saddened that his wife could not accept their conditions.

In September 2021, he noticed that his wife was always getting angry with their sons, and his concern grew.

He began having suicidal ideations, and bought an ice pick on a whim.

At the start of 2022, Yap began harbouring serious thoughts of killing his sons and committing suicide. He had noticed that his wife was depressed and frustrated, because the boys were about to be assessed for their suitability to remain in their mainstream primary school.

He felt that his wife had given up on the boys.

THE KILLINGS

Yap noticed that a playground near his house – Greenridge Crescent Playground – was quite quiet, and that there was a big open field and a forest nearby.

On Jan 21, 2022, he decided to carry out his plan to kill his sons and commit suicide. 

At about 4.45pm, he drove his sons to the playground in his car, bringing along the ice pick.

After the boys played for about 10 minutes, Yap took them to an open field near the playground and carried them one by one into a canal near the field.

He pressed a stick against Ethan’s neck before strangling him and placing his face in the water. He then did the same to Aston, who had been watching quietly. 

After the boys were dead, Yap tried to kill himself with the ice pick but was unable to do so. He also tried to create a brain injury with a tree branch and rock, but failed.

He then came up with the idea of pretending that he had been attacked. He believed that the evidence would show that he killed the victims, and that by lying to the police that he had been attacked, this would show he had no remorse – and he would receive the death penalty.

Yap moved to a grassy area and called his wife, but she did not pick up. He then made two calls to the police, claiming that he had been attacked and needed help to find his sons.

He then adjusted his sons’ bodies so that they faced upwards, before waiting for the police with their heads in his lap.

When the police did not arrive immediately, he went back to the canal area near the playground and shouted for help.

When officers arrived, Yap told them that he had been attacked and that someone else had killed his sons.

He was taken to hospital with bruises on his head, cuts on his body and abrasions.

He later admitted to killing his sons. Autopsies found that the boys had died by strangulation.

Yap was assessed to be suffering from major depressive disorder around the time of the offences. He had symptoms for the past three years, worsening in the months before the offences.

He would qualify for the partial defence of diminished responsibility, as his condition was of such severity and persistence that it impaired his judgment of the nature and wrongfulness of his actions.

Although he knew the killings were wrong, he felt hopeless for his sons’ futures and wanted to kill them to relieve them of their stress and suffering.

He also felt that killing himself and the boys would allow his wife and her daughter from a previous marriage to carry on with their lives.

Culpable homicide not amounting to murder carries penalties of life imprisonment and caning, or up to 20 years’ jail and a fine or caning.

If the act was carried out without any intention to cause death, an offender can be given up to 15 years’ jail, a fine, caning or any combination of these punishments.

Continue Reading

Camp David summit to put new icing on the trilateral cake

When the leaders of Japan and South Korea join US President Joe Biden at Camp David on August 18, it will cap a year of remarkable progress in bringing relations in the region back from the depths of dysfunction.

The summit will showcase the attempts by the Biden administration to institutionalize trilateral security cooperation – tying the three countries into a pseudo-alliance built on intelligence sharing, missile defense, cybersecurity and strengthened nuclear deterrence.

For American security officials, these steps have gained fresh urgency from the tightening of another alliance – among North Korea, China and Russia. In an eerie echo of the Korean War, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made a highly symbolic visit to Pyongyang in late July, along with a senior Chinese Communist Party official.

The irony is that Moscow is now seeking arms from North Korea, rather than providing them. In any case, the Kim Jong Un regime now feels emboldened, marrying new missile tests with bombastic threats.

The Pyongyang axis was perhaps also energized by the efforts of the US to shore up its pledge to both Seoul and Tokyo of nuclear deterrence – so-called “extended deterrence.”

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in July 2023 on the occasion of North Korea’s celebration of ‘victory’ in the Korean War. Photo: Russian Defense Ministry

Before the Shoigu visit, the US and South Korea convened the first official meeting of a new Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) in Seoul, attended by senior US national security official Kurt Campbell and designed to reassure Koreans of the American pledge to come to their defense and deter a North Korean nuclear attack. The meeting was dramatized by the visit of an American nuclear missile-armed submarine to South Korea, the first since 1981.

The Camp David summit will offer some new icing on the trilateral cake that has been baking for the past year. That will take the form of a joint declaration, still under negotiation, that will set out a shared security perception and interests, with some reference to North Korea and China as well as the war in Ukraine.

An agreement on mutual consultation in case of crisis and the convening of annual trilateral summits is also on the summit agenda and so are economic security issues like cooperation on semiconductors and technology ties to China.

But this is short of what the Americans originally had on the agenda.

The Americans want to create a trilateral extended deterrence dialogue – broadening, in effect, the NCG created with South Korea. But senior American and Korean officials in Washington told this writer that these plans were opposed by both the Japanese and Korean governments.

Japanese officials are wary of any multilateral nuclear discussions, which are considered beyond the political limits in Tokyo. And the Koreans do not want to dilute the importance of their bilateral Washington Declaration, adopted earlier this year in the Biden-Yoon summit.

The Camp David summit is actually a rescheduling of a meeting that was planned for the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Hiroshima but did not take place due to Biden’s need to rush home to deal with the U.S. debt limit negotiations.

US security officials had hoped to follow up on earlier agreements to share missile defense information in real-time, formalized at the trilateral defense ministers meeting in June in Singapore, and the establishment of trilateral joint exercises for anti-submarine and missile defense.

The last sit-down among Yoon Suk Yeol (left), Fumio Kishida (right) and Joe Biden (center) was on the sidelines of the 2022 NATO summit. Photo: C-SPAN screenshot

Locking in the gains

The symbolism of a stand-alone summit at Camp David, site of many famous meetings, will still capture the headlines. But behind this lie serious concerns about the fragility of this progress, no matter how much it will be celebrated in all three capitals.

The Biden administration is trying to lock in the gains of the past year to create structures of cooperation that can endure beyond the current administrations in power in Seoul and Tokyo. Lurking behind that is a fear, strongly felt in Japan and South Korea, that the US elections could return to power an American president who has no real commitment to these alliances.

There are considerable forces in both Japan and South Korea that seek to undermine, if not reverse, what has taken place in the past year. Both South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida suffer from low popularity and ongoing challenges to their leadership.

Serious unresolved issues in the realm of wartime historical justice could re-emerge at any moment. And there are gaps in strategic perception among the three countries that remain largely unaddressed, especially in Washington.

The failure to forge an effective regional trade strategy on the part of the Biden administration undermines whatever progress has been made on trilateral security. The most obvious and effective vehicle for cooperation remains the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

There would be a clear benefit if South Korea joined the CPTPP, particularly if China seeks to join the grouping. But the Biden administration, for domestic political reasons, can offer no public push for that move.

While South Korea and Japan are bound by their alliance with the US, they do not share the same priorities.

For Korea, the central issue has been and always will be the division of the Korean peninsula and the ongoing threat of the North Korean regime to seek reunification by military means. While Seoul worries about the Sino-Russian partnership that has emboldened Pyongyang, Korean policymakers are reluctant to be drawn into an overt balancing strategy against the PRC.

For Japan, while North Korea is a shared threat, the main security focus is on China and on the tightening alliance between China and Russia, propelled by the Ukraine war. The possibility of Chinese use of force in resolving the Taiwan question has become a much more urgent issue as a result.

But the Japanese also reflect the same views as Koreans about the need to avoid a path toward full-scale economic war with China and to continue to seek ways to engage Beijing.

“Amid the intensifying rivalry between the United States and China, Japan finds itself in an increasingly delicate situation, caught between its security guarantor and its leading economic partner,” former Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Tanaka Hitoshi wrote recently.

“As a staunch ally of the United States, Japan is committed to reinforcing the alliance framework to deter unilateral changes to the status quo and uphold regional stability. At the same time, despite significant debate and diverse views on its China policy, Japan’s geographic proximity, extensive people-to-people connections, and strong economic ties with China mean that it must carefully navigate tensions and avert unnecessary instability or chaos.”

Ironically, that is true as well for the US although its current political climate does not allow a frank discussion of this reality, though that is changing slightly.

Camp David sign. Photo: About Camp David

Politics of normalization

The greatest source of potential challenges to this progress toward a trilateral security pact is the attempt to push ahead in Korea-Japan relations without really resolving the issues of colonial and wartime history.

The normalization of relations is largely the consequence of the change in administrations in Seoul, though even during the previous progressive administration there was a growing conviction that the severe downturn in relations needed to be reversed.

Yoon has very clearly repudiated the use of anti-Japanese tropes in Korean domestic politics and taken steps to unilaterally resolve the forced labor issue, the Fukushima nuclear wastewater discharge controversy, the export control problem and lingering barriers to security cooperation such as the fire control incident of 2018.

Still, Yoon’s personal popularity remains relatively low, though support for his administration has stabilized somewhat. That said, the polarization of Korean politics remains unchanged. The opposition Democratic Party is gearing up for what promises to be a highly contested and crucial election next spring for the National Assembly, where the Democrats still hold a majority.

The key issues pushed by the progressives are aimed squarely at Yoon’s foreign and security policy agenda, as well as at issues of domestic economic reform. These include the Fukushima discharge, the confrontation with trade unions over labor policy reforms, the unilateral and unreciprocated settlement of the forced labor compensation suits, and the charge that Yoon is undermining Korean independence by subordinating policy to the US and Japan.

The Korean left argues that Yoon’s tilt against China is dictated by the US and Japan and endangers the Korean economy, which is suffering from slowing growth driven in part by a steep decline in exports of Korean semiconductors, batteries and other technology goods to China.

Even among conservatives in Korea, there is a growing concern that while Korea has embraced a confrontation with China, it may find itself alone as the US pursues the resumption of engagement with Beijing.

If the economy continues to suffer, with Korean businesses seeming to be put at risk due to the anti-China policy, this may shape the coming election as a potential turning point for Yoon’s foreign and security policy shift.

The politics of normalization in Japan are not nearly as perilous as those of Korea. Prime Minister Kishida’s efforts to improve the optics of relations – the visit of Yoon to Japan, the reciprocal visit to Korea, and the joint appearance at the memorial for Korean victims of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima – are generally viewed positively in Japan.

Within elite policy circles in Japan, based on this writer’s conversations in Tokyo this year, there is recognition that President Yoon has taken serious and even politically risky steps to improve relations and that it is the Japanese interest to support those efforts.

Skepticism about Korean commitment to normal relations and the easing of anti-Japanese feelings in Korea has eased considerably.

The history problem will not go away

However, Kishida has been unwilling – and perhaps politically unable – to offer significant concessions on the historical justice issues, most specifically to encourage Japanese corporations to offer contributions to the fund used by Korea to compensate forced labor victims and their descendants.

Nor was Kishida willing to directly address the issues of Japan’s wartime conduct or its colonial rule. All of that was widely noted by Koreans and influenced the view held by Koreans that Yoon made all the concessions on this issue and the Japanese did essentially nothing.

South Korean protesters hold a sign during an anti-Japanese demonstration supporting comfort women who served as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II, near the Japanese embassy in Seoul on July 24, 2019. Photo: Asia Times Files / AFP / Jung Yeon-je

Kishida remains effectively constrained by the strength of the more conservative and historically revisionist elements of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), mainly organized by the former Abe faction but not confined to its members alone.

He may not feel able to take the steps needed on history issues until he holds another general election under his leadership and, if successful, ends the constant discussion of his succession within the LDP. Kishida, however, also shows no personal interest or conviction to confront the history issues more directly.

There is a belief in Tokyo, echoed in Washington, and to some degree in the presidential administration in Seoul, that the history issues have been effectively contained and even resolved. That will probably be reflected in the outcome of the Camp David summit. But that is an illusion, and a dangerous one.

Daniel Sneider is a lecturer on international policy and East Asian studies at Stanford University and a non-resident distinguished fellow at the Korea Economic Institute. Follow him on Twitter at @DCSneider

This article was originally published by The Oriental Economist. It is republished with permission.

Continue Reading

Japan economy grows much faster than expected

Nissan factoryGetty Images

Japan’s economy grew much faster than expected in the three months to the end of June as the country’s weak currency boosted exports.

The world’s third largest economy saw its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rise by an annualised 6% in the period.

It is about twice the rate of growth forecast by economists and marks the biggest rise in almost three years.

The fall in the value of the yen helped exporters as Japanese-made goods became cheaper for consumers around the world.

Japan’s currency has fallen sharply against major currencies in recent months and is down by more 10% versus the US dollar this year.

“The weak yen is behind the positive GDP numbers,” Fujitsu’s chief economist Martin Schulz told the BBC.

GDP is one of the most important tools for looking at how well, or badly, an economy is doing.It helps businesses judge when to expand and hire more people, and it lets government work out how much to tax and spend.

Profits at the country’s car makers – including Toyota, Honda and Nissan – have been boosted in recent months as they saw increased demand for exports.

Japan’s economy has also been helped by a rise in tourist numbers after the government lifted border restrictions at the end of April.

As of June, the number of foreign visitors to Japan had recovered to more than 70% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the country’s national tourism authority.

Spending by tourists is also expected to give the country’s economy an even bigger boost from this month after China lifted a ban on group travel.

Before the pandemic Chinese visitors accounted for more than a third of tourist spending in Japan.

That is helping to offset the impact of the slowing recovery of consumption in the country itself after the pandemic.

“The main difficulty for Japan’s second half is, however, that the domestic economy is cooling,” Mr Schulz said.

Related Topics

Continue Reading

Two arrested after slashing man on forehead

SINGAPORE: Two men aged 19 and 20 have been arrested and charged for their suspected involvement in a fight where the victim was purportedly slashed on his forehead.

The police on Monday (Aug 14) said they were alerted to the fight at Read Crescent Park in Clarke Quay at about 6.15am on Sunday.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the victim had an altercation with three men.

“During their dispute, a fight ensued between them where one of the assailants allegedly used a knife to attack the victim,” police said in a news release.

The three assailants fled after the fight and a knife believed to be used to attack the victim was recovered and seized as case exhibit.

The victim suffered a deep laceration on his forehead and was taken conscious to the hospital.

Through ground enquiries and with the aid of police cameras, officers established the identities of two of the assailants – Steve Yap Kar Xun, 19, and Danesh Sheldrick Mohamad Salim, 20 – and arrested them later on Sunday.

One suspect is still at large and police are looking for the man shown in the image below to assist with investigations.

Continue Reading