"One investigation exposed an Israeli mass surveillance program scooping up virtually all Palestinian phone calls and storing them on Microsoft's cloud services setting off an inquiry that ultimately prompted the company to cut off Israel's access to some of its technology. Another story revealed that the Israeli military created a ChatGPT-like tool to analyze data collected through the surveillance of Palestinians. Yet another revealed that Google and Amazon had agreed to extraordinary terms to clinch a lucrative contract with Israel."
"The Israeli military had been fetishizing artificial intelligence and big data for many years a trend that is very much connected to Israel's occupation of the Palestinians, because the occupation generates a lot of data. What changed after October 7 was the scope. The military was looking to bomb hundreds of targets every day in Gaza. Tens of thousands of people were recruited into reserve duty. That meant a huge spike in usage of technological systems. That's where the big tech companies stepped in."
Israel's military developed deep operational ties with major technology companies, driven by occupation-generated data and a long-standing focus on AI and big data. Mass surveillance scooped up extensive Palestinian phone data and stored it on commercial cloud services, triggering corporate restrictions on some Israeli access. The military built generative-AI tools to analyze surveillance-collected data. Google and Amazon accepted unusual contractual terms to secure Israeli contracts. After October 7, operational demands spiked: plans to strike hundreds of targets daily and mobilize tens of thousands of reservists produced a major surge in demand for storage, analytics, and AI capabilities provided by big tech.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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