Not (A.) I.

@aerialeverything.cryptoanarchy.network

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PhD Humanities: Aerial Perspectives; Landscape Traditions; Operational Images; Critical AI; AI Slop & Visual Culture; Surveillance Studies; Also Art Criticism; Definitely Coffee. Professoring in the gig economy.

The front cover of Allan Sekula's Photography Against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works 1973-1983. The cover is black with light green text and a light green rectangle in centre on which there are black graphics.
Nixon’s head in a jar from a scene in Futurama.
Iran says 30 MQ-9 drones shot down since US-Israel war started By Resul Serdar Atas Reporting from Tehran, Iran Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone of the US over the city of Ahvaz. This is the fourth American MQ-9 drone shot down by Iran in the last eight days, according to the authorities. These are expensive and sophisticated drones used for both surveillance and attack. Iranians say they have downed more than 150 US drones since the beginning of the war with about 30 of them being MQ-9s. In the first week of March, US Secretary of State Hesgeth said his country is in full control of Iranian airspace. MQ-9s are known for not being easily detected by air defence systems." [continued in next image] source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/7/19/iran-war-live-us-launches-new-strikes-trump-mourns-killed-soldiers
Throwback to 2003, at the meeting of the UN Security Council as the US argues for invasion of Iraq as purportedly they are in possession of weapons of mass destruction. In this photo, Colin Powell, wearing a dark suit and burgundy coloured tie, holds up a vial holding a yellowish substance meant to represent the amount of Anthrax that closed the U.S. Senate in 2002.
Wanda Koop, Smoke, 2023 A minimalist landscape painting on a vertically ordered canvas. The background is a greyish yellow, representing the sky (which dominates the composition) and the water beneath it. In the foreground is a glimpse of a dark grey shoreline and on the horizon, there are silhouettes of city architecture in a lighter grey, with a faint orange line dividing where land meets water. In the high middle of the painting is a large red-orange sun and below, near the bottom edge is an exclamation mark in a faded variety of that same colour.
Yellow grey background with a red dot in it. Looks like a Wanda Koop painting, but is actually a photo of the sky in Montreal on a day with severe storm warnings.
The jury might have been anonymous, but the legal teams were able to gather a significant amount of data about each member during jury selection, Lanier explains. “We have questionnaires they filled out that tell us their age, their gender, their occupational history, their family status. But it gives us more insight: it asks, who are three people you most admire and why? Who are three you least admire and why? How do you feel about this or that on a scale of one to 10?” Armed with a dossier of information, Lanier’s AI created models of every juror, “a demographic and psychological exemplar” of each one that allowed him to try out potential arguments on individual members. At the end of each day in court, he would feed the transcripts to his AI shadow jury and ask questions. What did juror number 11 think of the witness? What did juror number seven think was important? Where did juror number three get confused? “Pretty cool,” he grins.
“It’s early days, but we’ve already learnt that curating a critical mass of unique, distinctive datasets has piqued the interest of even some of the largest global technology companies,” Gurr says. Last month, his museum licensed its biodiversity health data to asset management group BlackRock, which is using it to improve the model for its sustainable investing intelligence platform
My new favourite tee shirt. Black tee with white letters all-cap reading : ANTI-FASCIST BICYCLE CLUB
Panels from weather network showing predicted temps for Montreal tomorrow afternoon, evening, and night (46, 39, 29).
Excerpt from the AI Policy page on the Taylor and Francis website. It says: AI Policy "Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as large language models (LLMs) or multimodal models, continue to develop and evolve, including in their application for businesses and consumers. Taylor & Francis welcomes the new opportunities offered by Generative AI tools, particularly in: copyediting and language refinement, enhancing idea generation and exploration, supporting authors to express content in a non-native language, and accelerating the research and dissemination process. " I highlighted the bit about enhancing idea generation and exploration, which is generally what the blank page challenges a writer to do using imagination and research.
Bluesky limitation on characters prohibits me from the including entire ALT, so here are highlights. "The making of this photograph-- it is certainly my most popular single image--combined serendipity and immediate technical recall. [...] We were sailing southward along the highway not far from Española when I glanced to the left and saw an extraordinary situation-- an inevitable photograph! I almost ditched the care and rushed to set up my 8x10 camera." Adams then goes on to describe the technical skills he employed to capture the photograph.
Ansel Adams bio on Catherine Couturier Gallery website: https://www.catherinecouturier.com/artists/ansel-adams/ Ansel Adams was an American photographer best known for his iconic images of the American West, including Yosemite National Park. Ansel Adams was born on February 20, 1902, in San Francisco, California. Adams rose to prominence as a photographer of the American West, particularly Yosemite National Park, using his work to promote conservation of wilderness areas. His iconic black-and-white images helped to establish photography among the fine arts. He died in Monterey, California, on April 22, 1984.
Excerpt from Blind Magazine review of AIPAD show at the Armoury. The world at a distance There is a long tradition of treating landscape as the dependable anchor: the beautiful vistas and horizons that collectors trust and decorators reach for. What the fair delivers this year is something more unsettling: landscapes that use beauty to deliver something more profound. The first thing that stops the eye is at Catherine Couturier Gallery out of Houston: a gelatin silver print of a small New Mexico village at dusk, a moon hanging impossibly bring above a flat horizon, snow on distant mountains, white crosses in a graveyard catching the last light. Ansel Adams made this in 1941, printed it in the 1960s, and it is one of those photographs that you can argue about endlessly: too famous, too reproduced, too beautiful maybe. Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico is not beautiful in the sentimental sense. It is precise and the dark sky is not romantic. The light on those graves is not poetic, it is factual, and these facts make it devastating.
2026 EXHIBITORS MAIN GALLERY SECTOR 19th Century Rare Book & Photograph Shop | New York, NY Alta | Anyós, Andorra Augusta Edwards Fine Art | London, UK Bildhalle | Zurich, Switzerland | Amsterdam, The Netherlands Bruce Silverstein | New York, NY Catherine Couturier Gallery | Houston, TX Cavalier Galleries | New York, NY | Greenwich, CT | Nantucket, MA | Palm Beach, FL Charles Isaacs Photographs | New York, NY CLAMP | New York, NY Curatorial Gallery | London, United Kingdom Daniel / Oliver Gallery | Brooklyn, NY Danziger Gallery | New York, NY Deborah Bell Photographs | New York, NY Echo Fine Arts | Cannes, France Edwynn Houk Gallery | New York, NY Form. Gallery | Dinard, France Galerie Olivier Waltman | Miami, FL | Paris, France Galerie XII | Los Angeles, CA | Paris, France Galerie Sophie Scheidecker | Paris, France Gana Art | Seoul, South Korea | Los Angeles, CA Gilman Contemporary | Ketchum, ID Gitterman Gallery | New York, NY Gregory Leroy Photographs | Madrid, Spain
The Association of International Photography Art Dealers encourages public support of fine art photography by acting as a collective voice for the dealers in fine art photography and through communication and education that enhances the confidence of the public, museums, institutions and others in responsible fine art photography dealing. To read more about the History of AIPAD, click here. The Association of International Photography Art Dealers [AIPAD] was organized in 1979. With members in the United States, Australia, Canada, Europe and Japan, the Association has become a unifying force in the field of photography. AIPAD is dedicated to creating and maintaining high standards in the business of exhibiting, buying, and selling photographic art. Acting as the collective voice of the art photography dealers that make up its membership, AIPAD maintains ethical standards, promotes communication within the photographic community, encourages public appreciation of photography as art, concerns itself with the rights of photographers and collectors, and works to enhance the confidence of the public in responsible photography collecting. AIPAD members provide a wide range of services to the public, such as exhibitions, appraisals, expert opinions and consultations. https://www.aipad.com/about
AI-generated colourized image in imitation of "Moon Over Hernandez" by Ansel Adams. Underneath the image is the following text: A.I. GENERATED From the prompt: Make a realistic colour version of Ansel Adams; iconic "Moonrise Over Hernandez" Proofed, regenerated & photoshopped from 11/25-4/26 Printed by master printer Esteban Mauchi Editions of 10 in 3 sizes -- 20x24", 24 x30", 30 x 40"
Rembrandt van Rijn. "Flight into Egypt," 1647. Nocturne landscape painting with two major sources of light. The campfire warming the travellers, Joseph, Mary, and infant Jesus and top left corner, moonlight escapes the clouds above the trees. Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_van_Rijn,_Landscape_with_the_Rest_on_the_Flight_into_Egypt.jpg
Adam Elsheimer, "Flight into Egypt" (c.1609), oil on copper. Nocturne landscape painting, illustrating biblical scene. Four major sources of light - the moon and its reflection on the water; a torch held by Joseph illuminates Mary on the back of a donkey holding the infant Jesus; a camp fire. Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flight_into_Egypt_(Elsheimer)
Image source: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/53904 Screenshot of the silver gelatin print, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico by Ansel Adams (1941). A black and white night-time landscape, with shrub-like vegetation in the foreground, followed by a line of architectural structures, a field in the mid-ground, and mountains running along the horizon line. Above this is a long horizontal cloud, and a pale moon.
Image source: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/53904 Screenshot of the silver gelatin print, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico by Ansel Adams (1941). A black and white night-time landscape, with shrub-like vegetation in the foreground, followed by a line of architectural structures, a field in the mid-ground, and mountains running along the horizon line. Above this is a long horizontal cloud, and a pale moon.
AI-generated colourized image in imitation of "Moon Over Hernandez" by Ansel Adams. Underneath the image is the following text: A.I. GENERATED From the prompt: Make a realistic colour version of Ansel Adams; iconic "Moonrise Over Hernandez" Proofed, regenerated & photoshopped from 11/25-4/26 Printed by master printer Esteban Mauchi Editions of 10 in 3 sizes -- 20x24", 24 x30", 30 x 40"
Anna Stavrianakis, a professor of international relations at the University of Sussex and expert on the global arms trade, said public pressure played a decisive role in pushing governments to reassess their export policies. “In several cases, it has been public protest, labour organising and strategic litigation that has forced arms-exporting states to reconsider or restrict transfers,” she told Al Jazeera. In the United Kingdom, a case brought by Al-Haq, an NGO based in the occupied West Bank, and nonprofit Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), and supported by Amnesty International and others, challenged Britain's arms exports in court. In Spain, dockworkers refused to handle ships reportedly carrying military equipment bound for Israel, prompting authorities to block or investigate shipments. In Canada, demonstrations and pressure from lawmakers preceded a parliamentary vote calling for a halt to transfers, after which the government paused new permits. In France, large-scale protests intensified scrutiny of arms sales.
Despite the statements of condemnation and concern from world leaders, at least 220 shipments have arrived at Israel’s ports, originating from 28 different countries, between the ceasefire and December 31, 2025. Neve Gordon, an Israeli professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London, told Al Jazeera that “country after country has contributed to the evisceration of the international legal order by feigning blindness and refusing to abide by their legal obligations". “This is myopic. The very states that helped build this legal order, and invoke it constantly, are now playing a central role in its dismantlement.”
Interactive chart with search engine titled "The countries and self-governing territories linked to military-related goods entering Israel.
Temporary ceasefire: A time to rearm Between January 19 and March 18, 2025, a temporary ceasefire and exchange of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners took effect. It was the second pause in the war. According to the data analysed by Al Jazeera, some of the largest single weapons consignments recorded during the war arrived during this period, suggesting that the pause in fighting may also have created space for resupply and replenishment. In February 2025, customs records show a shipment valued at 605 million shekels ($16.6m) entered Israel through the port of Haifa. Classified under codes for tank and armoured vehicle parts, it was the single largest weapons-related import identified in this investigation.
Pie chart showing what types of arms and military-related exports were sent to Israel. Explosive munitions were the most common, followed by parts and accessories, tank and armoured vehicles and parts, bullet-related exports.
Even countries that were among the strongest pro-Palestinian voices on the world stage had military-related goods originating from their territories enter Israel during the war - even if the quantities were much smaller - according to the ITA data. Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped Israel’s attacks on women, children and elderly people would end. Military-related goods originating from the country totalled 7.5 million shekels ($2.1m), with 79 percent recorded after the ICJ order.
Graphic entitled: Which countries and self-governing territories were the largest sources of military-related goods entering Israel?
A graphic showing the value of US military-related good entering Israel. Shipments peaked in April 2025.
Even after the latest ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, the flow of weapons did not stop. In the final two months of 2025, Israel received an additional 324.9 million shekels ($89.4m) in military-related imports, according to the ITA data.
The five largest countries of origin for military-related goods entering Israel - the United States, India, Romania, Taiwan and the Czech Republic - all recorded increased shipments during the war.
Weapons exports A months-long Al Jazeera investigation has found that military-related goods originating from at least 51 countries and self-governing territories continued entering Israel after the ICJ’s warning of a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza. Based primarily on an analysis of Israeli Tax Authority (ITA) import data between 2022 and 2025, and supported by customs records and freedom of information requests, the investigation traced military supply chains linked to countries across Europe, Asia, North America and South America. All named countries are signatories to the Genocide Convention. In some cases, the military-related goods originated from countries that had formally imposed arms embargoes on Israel or had partially suspended arms supplies to the country. In fact, according to the ITA data, arms imports increased after the ICJ ruling, with the largest share falling under the category of munitions.
Graphic with world map illustrating the countries linked to military-related goods entering Israel. Unsurprisingly, the US is the leading contributor.
Screen shot of an X post by Amy Kremer on Oct.3, 2024. Text above the image reads: "the picture has been seared into my mind. My heart hurts" (followed by broken heart emoji, crying face emoji). Below is an AI-generated image of a little girl wearing an orange life jacket, sitting in the bow of a green boat, holding a puppy. She is drenched in the pouring rain. In the background is light brown water and a red boat holding other people. This synthetic image (slop) in photo-realistic style was supposed to represent victims of Hurricane Helene.
Update posted May 20 18.53 BST re: Guardian story whose headline reads "Outrage grows over treatment of Gaza flotilla activists" "Israel's treatment of Gaza flotilla members is 'abominable', Canada PM Carney says Israel’s treatment of the detained Gaza flotilla activists is “abominable”, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said Wednesday. Ottawa earlier said it would summon the Israeli ambassador to protest after national Ssecurity minister Itamar Ben-Gvir shared a video in which he taunted the activists, who were forced to kneel on the ground in rows with their hands tied behind their backs. “The abominable treatment of civilians aboard the flotilla, including that which is documented in footage shared by Itamar Ben-Gvir, is unacceptable,” Carney said in a social media post, using unusually harsh language to condemn a close ally. “Canada has already imposed strict sanctions on Mr. Ben-Gvir, including asset freezes and a travel ban, in response to his repeated incitement of violence.” Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/may/20/us-iran-israel-lebanon-gaza-trump-oil-hormuz-latest-news-updates
“AI is now part of our everyday reality whether you’re in school or not. Turning to generative AI has become second nature to many students, with nearly half saying it’s their ‘first instinct’ to rely on AI when given an assignment. Yet, in the two years since we’ve undertaken this research, students – as many as six in 10 - still feel like they’re cheating whenever they use generative AI and over half are afraid of getting found out. That suggests higher educational institutions still need to embed AI into learning pathways.”
“The point of higher education is for students to develop critical thinking skills, not avoid them,” says Rob Clayton, Partner and National Education Practice Leader for KPMG in Canada. “Our research highlights the importance of embedding AI literacy across higher education to help students learn how to use AI tools to improve their analytical skills, not make them worse. “When they enter the workforce, they will not only be expected to know how to use AI properly and safely, but they must have the ability to analyze, objectively evaluate, and problem solve,” he says. “If students use AI only to save time, they risk trading convenience for comprehension, leaving behind critical thinking, knowledge retention, and the ability to adapt in a fast-changing world.
Data sources and methods The data comes from geolocation based trips tracking Canadian devices traveling to U.S. metro areas based on Cuebiq's stops table. A "Canadian device" is defined as a unique device per day in the stops table with the country code set as "Canada" and the device type as "Home." Home devices are classified based on the duration and timing of the stops from an observation of the past 84 days, and each device is assigned a unique anonymized identifier. These Canadian devices have been recorded between April 1, 2024 - March 31, 2026 to measure daily trip occurrences. Source: https://mappingtariffs.org/canada-us-visits
"We analyzed cell phone activity data, finding a year-over-year median decline of approximately 42% in Canadian visits to U.S. metropolitan areas. This is significantly higher than the ~25% drop recorded by border crossings estimates. This means that a) border crossing data is not capturing the full drop in Canadian business and trade-related travel and b) when Canadians travel to the U.S., they are visiting fewer locations and staying for less time than they used to." Source: https://mappingtariffs.org/canada-us-visits
Embroidered image by Nawal Ibrahim depicting a mass grave of bodies in blue plastic bags being buried in a trench by a bulldozer. The image is dominated by sand colour, making the bright blue of the bags electric. At first you might think the blue is water, but a closer look reveals a more macabre scene. In the background is a pale blue sky.
Posters wheat-pasted on a white brick wall, covered in black and orange graffiti, mirroring salient colours in the posters. The slogans on the posters read: Revolution against the billionaires (overtop an image of Luigi in orange coveralls); We are poor because they are rich (overtop a pic of Big Tech assholes in attendance at Trump inauguration); Capitalism means war (overtop an image of a bomb explosion); The rich are killing the planet (overtop a forest burning).
Photo from Guardian article "‘We’re not Lady Gaga and Elton John’: unmasking Angine de Poitrine, the year’s buzziest, dottiest band" (an interview by Laura Snapes). Photo is captioned: "A triangular sensation … Khn and Klek after dark." Photograph credited to Samuel Snow. Colour photograph featuring the band members of Angine de Poitrine balancing on bronze pyramids in a dark alley, which judging from the state of the asphalt, is most likely located in Montreal. Behind is a building with three window lit up.
At least two things are worth observing about the resulting sequence of videos, slidedecks, and notes that comprised the course I paid for. The first is that none of the five faculty whose course materials were scraped up and recurated for purchase were consulted about their inclusion in ASU Atomic. (At least, that’s what they told me when I wrote them individually.) That is to say, none were asked about nor even made aware of Atomic’s summary use of their lessons, lectures, or image. Having received access to this content through Canvas materials sometimes created years before, ASU treated these faculty members as an extractable resource whose consent is beside the point.
Cost Disease Why are our bosses, in their many guises, so enthusiastic about AI on campus? The answer lies in the nature of our work. Higher education, like hospitals or orchestras or federal bureaucracies, is a labor-intensive sector that is difficult to automate and that serves a social purpose, rather than solely pursuing profit. When sectors like ours are in the black, they generally spend that surplus on those social purposes (more nurses or concerts) rather than buying back stock or investing in new fixed capital for greater returns. Workers making cars or washing machines can produce more widgets per person per hour as new technologies—assembly lines, robots—augment their labor or replace it entirely. Not so with teachers or violinists, whose product is a relationship, experience, or other immaterial good consumed at the point of service. But both sets of workers—in services and manufacturing—exist in the same labor market and, all things being equal, the increased productivity in manufacturing drives wage growth not just in that sector but in services, too; otherwise we’d all leave our jobs for the well-paying factory. But because there’s little corresponding productivity growth in services, our work becomes more expensive over time in real dollars. We’re teaching roughly the same way as sixty years ago, but everything (including labor) costs more.
Excerpt from the article reads: Lemkin understood conditions of life to include not only the infrastructure that enables biological existence but social and cultural continuity too: religious buildings, schools, libraries, heritage sites. In Gaza most of these have also been systematically demolished. The Genocide Convention ratified in 1948 did not mention the ‘cultural genocide’ that Lemkin argued should be included. Entire sections were left out of the convention. Imperial powers such as Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, which were then attempting to suppress anti-colonial uprisings, wanted genocide to be defined in a way that would not restrict their activities. Settler-colonial states – Australia, the United States and Canada – that had destroyed the physical heritage, culture and language of Indigenous peoples also objected. But cultural and biological life are not separate domains when it comes to national survival. In Gaza the systematic devastation of the environment – fields, water sources and the fishing industry – destroyed the ability of the society to feed itself. Attacks on schools and mosques reduced its capacity to organise and offer mutual care to mitigate the worst effects of scarcity, thus aggravating famine. The simultaneous destruction of one domain amplifies the harm caused by the other.
A poster by Phineas Jones showing a tech-bro-style guy using a laptop, behind him is the ghost of Hitler who has one arm wrapped around his shoulder and the other raised in a fist. The background is a faded vintage yellow and the font is a style associated with WWII propaganda. The text reads: Using Generative AI? You're prompting with Hitler! GenAI is a Fascist Project! Trying using your BRAIN INSTEAD/ DON'T SURRENDER YOUR CREATIVITY TO THE TECH BILLIONAIRE'S CONTROL. Prints can be purchased at https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/phineas/prompting-with-hitler/
Screenshot from Al Jazeera Live taken at 2:15PM EDT Wednesday April 8, 2026. Headline reads: ISRAEL KILLS AL JAZEERA JOURNALIST MOHAMMED WISHAH AFTER STRIKING HIS CAR ON COAST ROAD IN WESTERN GAZA. The screen is divided into three panels. In the large frame to the viewer's right, is the charred and mangled car in which Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Wishah was travelling and was hit by an Israeli drone strike. In the upper righthand panel is a photo of Wishah in his press protective gear, and below is a spokesperson for the rights of journalists, who states that not a single charge has been levied against Israel for the many targeted killings of journalists in Palestine or Lebanon. She says that there has been little international pressure for accountability, which serves to embolden Israel to continue the practice of targeting journalists, for instance.
Screenshot of Al Jazeera reporting on April 6, 2026. Heading reads in all caps: ISRAELI FORCES HAVE SHOT AND KILLED A UNITED NATIONS EMPLOYEE IN THE GAZA STRIP AND INJURED ANOTHER, and below this in GAZA CEASEFIRE. Screen divided into two screens: on the left a group of Gazans, with heads bowed, surround the body of the martyr; on the right an Al Jazeera reporter recounts the story.
Screenshot from Al Jazeera program. The image is divided into two panels: on the left is Dr. Mohammed Tahir who previously worked in Gaza, describing it as a "killing field." On the right, are Gazans in Khan Yhounis mourning a martyred loved one.
Post by Eliot Higgins in which he comments on the message from Planet Labs pasted below:"Just had this from Planet Labs, the US government have asked satellite imagery providers for "voluntarily" restrictions on access to satellite imagery. Given a lot of them provide satellite imagery to the USG we can probably guess the outcome of not acquiescing to that request." Part one of the message from Planet Labs reads: "Dear Eliot Higgins, Due to the conflict in the Middle East, the U.S. government has requested all satellite imagery providers voluntarily implement an indefinite withhold of imagery in the designated Area of Interest (AOI).Effective retroactively from March 9, 2026, Planet is moving to a managed access model, extending the publication delay for all new imagery within the designated AOl, and releasing imagery on a case-by-case basis and for urgent, mission-critical requirements or in the public interest. For the media, this model is in line with the media policies of other remote sensing companies. We expect this policy to last through the end of the conflict."
“The three poems were short; all less than ten lines,” Arturo B., our poet-narrator, says of the early verse of Alberto Ruiz-Tagle, the mysterious autodidact who one day appears, as if from nowhere, in the poetry workshop Arturo attends. “One described a landscape: trees, a dirt road, a house in the distance, wooden fences, hills, clouds.” No part of the poem is quoted; we’re given none of the text or texture. According to Marta, another young poet in their orbit, these weren’t
The Bishop's Head (2012) by Marcel Dzama. Water colour painting of eight figures dressed in blue with white polka dots tightly fitted outfits that also cover their heads.They are bowing before a figure dressed in read, wearing what resembles a papier mache rocket ship on its head.
For the Trump administration, this return to classicism echoes its priorities in building a triumphal arch in Washington and issuing an executive order last year to “Make Federal Architecture Beautiful Again” — symbols of a bygone era when classical aesthetics were the federal government’s default style.
Screenshot of Glamour article lede "What is the manosphere? And how does it impact women and girls?" by Lucy Morgan. On the viewer's left is an image of a middle-aged white man wearing black rimmed glasses, holding his chin in his hand in a pensive pose. There is no caption. A distance below is "Pip/Netflix," presumably the source of image.
In an unprecedented move, according to two of the sources, the army also decided during the first weeks of the war that, for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians; in the past, the military did not authorize any “collateral damage” during assassinations of low-ranking militants. The sources added that, in the event that the target was a senior Hamas official with the rank of battalion or brigade commander, the army on several occasions authorized the killing of more than 100 civilians in the assassination of a single commander.
Moreover, the Israeli army systematically attacked the targeted individuals while they were in their homes — usually at night while their whole families were present — rather than during the course of military activity. According to the sources, this was because, from what they regarded as an intelligence standpoint, it was easier to locate the individuals in their private houses. Additional automated systems, including one called “Where’s Daddy?” also revealed here for the first time, were used specifically to track the targeted individuals and carry out bombings when they had entered their family’s residences.
During the early stages of the war, the army gave sweeping approval for officers to adopt Lavender’s kill lists, with no requirement to thoroughly check why the machine made those choices or to examine the raw intelligence data on which they were based. One source stated that human personnel often served only as a “rubber stamp” for the machine’s decisions, adding that, normally, they would personally devote only about “20 seconds” to each target before authorizing a bombing — just to make sure the Lavender-marked target is male. This was despite knowing that the system makes what are regarded as “errors” in approximately 10 percent of cases, and is known to occasionally mark individuals who have merely a loose connection to militant groups, or no connection at all
developed an artificial intelligence-based program known as “Lavender,” unveiled here for the first time. According to six Israeli intelligence officers, who have all served in the army during the current war on the Gaza Strip and had first-hand involvement with the use of AI to generate targets for assassination, Lavender has played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war. In fact, according to the sources, its influence on the military’s operations was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine “as if it were a human decision.”