science

( Tomdispatch.com ) – He’s a funny little chap: a sharp dresser with a sleek grey jacket, a white waistcoat, red shorts, and a small grey crest for a hat. With his shiny black eyes and stubby black beak, he’s quite the looker. Like the chihuahua of the bird world, the tufted titmouse has no […]

Artificial Intelligence

Gaza War: Artificial Intelligence is radically changing Targeting Speeds and Scale of Civilian Harm

The Conversation

By Lauren Gould, Utrecht University; Linde Arentze, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies; and Marijn Hoijtink, University of Antwerp | – (The Conversation) – As Israel’s air campaign in Gaza enters its sixth month after Hamas’s terrorist attacks on October 7, it has been described by experts as one of the most relentless […]

Artificial Intelligence

A Brief History of Kill Lists, From Langley to Lavender

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink ) – The Israeli online magazine +972 has published a detailed report on Israel’s use of an artificial intelligence (AI) system called “Lavender” to target thousands of Palestinian men in its bombing campaign in Gaza. When Israel attacked Gaza after October 7, the Lavender system had a database of 37,000 Palestinian men […]

Artificial Intelligence

Gaza Conflict: Israel using AI to identify Human Targets raises Fears Innocents are Targeted

The Conversation

By Elke Schwarz, Queen Mary University of London | – A report by Jerusalem-based investigative journalists published in +972 magazine finds that AI targeting systems have played a key role in identifying – and potentially misidentifying – tens of thousands of targets in Gaza. This suggests that autonomous warfare is no longer a future scenario. […]

Artificial Intelligence

Four Ways AI could Help us Respond to Climate Change

The Conversation

By Lakshmi Babu Saheer, Anglia Ruskin University | – (The Conversation) – Advanced AI systems are coming under increasing critcism for how much energy they use. But it’s important to remember that AI could also contribute in various ways to our response to climate change. Climate change can be broken down into several smaller problems […]

Artificial Intelligence

AI Behavior, Human Destiny and the Rise of the Killer Robots

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Yes, it’s already time to be worried — very worried. As the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have shown, the earliest drone equivalents of “killer robots” have made it onto the battlefield and proved to be devastating weapons. But at least they remain largely under human control. Imagine, for a moment, […]

Climate Crisis

In our National Crisis, We need Public Voices of Optimism — not Gadflies circling a Black Hole

Bahman Fozouni

Sacramento (Special to Informed Comment) – Who is a public intellectual? What role should they play? Searching the internet yields several answers. Alan Lightman’s The Role of the Public Intellectual offers a thoughtful discussion of different visions of the public intellectual and their role and responsibilities. I have opted for a broader description, but with […]

Corporations

Tech “Visionaries” are Actually Holding back Progress with Bloated, Predatory Corporations

The Conversation

By Peter Bloom, >University of Essex | – Technological innovation in the last couple of decades has brought fame and huge wealth to the likes of Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. Often feted as geniuses, they are the faces behind the gadgets and media that so many of us depend upon. […]

Artificial Intelligence

AI Goes to War: Will the Pentagon’s Techno-Fantasies Pave the Way for War with China?

William D. Hartung

( Tomdispatch.com) – On August 28th, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks chose the occasion of a three-day conference organized by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the arms industry’s biggest trade group, to announce the “Replicator Initiative.” Among other things, it would involve producing “swarms of drones” that could hit thousands of targets in […]