Over the summer, the companies OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta all disclosed that their software had hacked into outside computers of their own volition.
asserted
software → disclose → volition
Most worryingly, OpenAI's virtual "agents" coordinated as a swarm to cover their tracks.
asserted
agents → coordinate → tracks
Last week, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon publicly resigned out of his worry that computers will become "smart enough to kill us."
asserted
computers → resign → us
While President Donald Trump dismissed the fears, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) proposed jailing AI developers.
asserted
Sanders → dismiss → developers
Across the ocean, another AI safety controversy was unfolding.
asserted
controversy → unfold → ocean
Israeli journalists Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor premiered their documentary NAZA, named after the Hebrew acronym for collateral damage, at the Venice Film Festival in Italy last week.
asserted
journalists → premier → Italy
Building on Abraham's earlier reporting on his country's targeting practices, the film airs testimony from Israeli intelligence officers about how they used AI to surveil and kill Palestinians in Gaza, including civilians.
asserted
they → build → civilians
The Israeli military, which denies the allegations, has launched an investigation into the "leaking of classified materials" to Abraham and Szor, according to The Times of Israel.
uncertain
which → deny → Israel
Israel isn't the only country using AI to mark people for death.
asserted
Israel → use → death
The Russian and Ukrainian armies have both been rolling out autonomous drones, which use AI guidance software to choose targets when they are cut off from radio contact with pilots, over the past few months.
asserted
they → roll → months
The U.S. military itself used an AI system to select over 1,000 targets in the opening surprise attack on Iran.
asserted
military → use → Iran
On the other side, the Iranian military and its allies in Yemen used Anthropic's Claude to gather intelligence and develop weapons guidance software, according to a recent security report by Anthropic.
uncertain
military → use → Anthropic
"The future is already here—it's just not evenly distributed," cyberpunk science fiction writer William Gibson famously said.
asserted
Gibson → distribute → ?
Many people around the world now live in AI kill zones, where inhuman algorithms summon robot assassins against anyone in the wrong place at the wrong time.
asserted
algorithms → live → time
Instead, this new technology is a tool empowering people to do what they long wanted to do.
asserted
they → empower → what
In the case of governments, that means spying on and bombing their enemies with fewer and fewer constraints.
asserted
that → mean → constraints
During the opening attack on Iran, the U.S. military bombed Minab's elementary school, which used to be an Iranian navy building, killing 150 people.
asserted
which → open → people
Some journalists initially speculated that AI was responsible for identifying the school as a target.
asserted
AI → speculate → target
Although the military has been tight-lipped about its investigation, leaks suggest that human negligence had a major role: Officials ignored warnings from the computer that their intelligence was old, and an analyst had actually updated the building as a school in a separate database that wasn't connected to the targeting system.
asserted
that → suggest → system
In other words, AI didn't make the decision to kill those children.
asserted
AI → make → children
At most, it sorted through data provided by humans and gave a recommendation to humans, who chose to act on it without double-checking their findings.
asserted
who → sort → findings
The value of AI for militaries is being able to integrate large amounts of surveillance data more closely and quickly into what the U.S. Army calls the "kill chain."
asserted
Army → integrate → what
Mohammed R. Mhawish, a Palestinian journalist from Gaza, described the experience of life under military rule for New York Magazine: "drones that hovered endlessly overhead, quadcopters that dipped near windows and entered houses, facial-recognition scans at checkpoints, movements followed through phone tracking, calls that broke with static before an air strike."
asserted
that → describe → strike
Human beings can only process a small fraction of that information by hand, and might not be able to pass it on quickly enough to a soldier or drone operator.
uncertain
beings → process → soldier
The rise of commercial AI has allowed rivals to catch up simply by buying consumer software.
asserted
rivals → allow → software
Last week, Anthropic released a report on its progress "detecting and countering misuse of AI."
asserted
Anthropic → release → AI
The company caught an "Iran-nexus threat actor that used Claude to collect and analyze publicly accessible data to develop targeting recommendations against U.S. naval forces in the region."
asserted
that → catch → region
(In other words, Iran was developing a poor man's Maven.)
asserted
Iran → develop → Maven
The report also includes non-state guerrillas, including "a cell of threat actors based in northern Yemen" that asked Claude for feedback on its missile targeting software, and a rebel group against the Iranian government that compiled "psychographic dossiers" on potential recruits.
asserted
that → include → recruits
Computer-assisted targeting began before electronic computers fully came into their own.
asserted
computers → assist → own
Nazi Germany infamously used International Business Machines' punchcard system to identify "enemies of the Reich" and manage concentration camps.
asserted
Germany → use → camps
During the Vietnam War, the CIA also used International Business Machines' computers to list and hunt suspected communist infiltrators through the Phoenix Program.
asserted
CIA → use → Program
The beginning of modern AI targeting was the SKYNET algorithm, named for the killer AI in the Terminator series.
asserted
beginning → name → series
In 2014, former National Security Agency (NSA) Director Gen. Michael Hayden told an audience at Johns Hopkins University that "we kill people based on metadata."
asserted
we → tell → metadata
A year later, The Intercept published a document from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden describing how the agency was training SKYNET to identify Al Qaeda's "couriers" from cell phone location data.
asserted
agency → publish → data
The U.S. military openly began using AI targeting in 2017.
asserted
military → begin → 2017
With an initial budget of $70 million and an initial training data set of 150,000 images, the Pentagon announced Project Maven.
asserted
Pentagon → announce → Maven
"People and computers will work symbiotically to increase the ability of weapon systems to detect objects," Col. Drew Cukor told a conference.
asserted
Cukor → work → conference
The military bombed its first AI-selected target at a testing range in North Carolina in 2020, then used the same software to manage the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan and provide targets to Ukrainian forces.
asserted
military → bomb → forces
The surveillance contractor Palantir received a $480 million contract in 2024 to run the present Maven Smart System.
asserted
contractor → receive → System
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
