Have the Chinese been able to weaponize A.I. yet?

Everyone is weaponizing A.I. Some countries are building autonomous weapons systems based on A.I., while others are focused on disinformation or propaganda or bots. It takes different forms in different countries. In Israel, for instance, we have one of the largest laboratories for A.I. surveillances in the world — it’s called the Occupied Territories. In fact, one of the reasons Israel is such a leader in A.I. surveillance is because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Explain this a bit further.

Part of why the occupation is so successful is because of A.I. surveillance technology and big data algorithms. You have major investment in A.I. (in Israel) because there are real-time stakes in the outcomes — it’s not just some future scenario.

A.I. was supposed to make decision-making a whole lot easier. Has this happened?



A.I. allows you to analyze more data more efficiently and far more quickly, so it should be able to help make better decisions. But it depends on the decision. If you want to get to a major bus station, A.I. can help you find the easiest route. But then you have cases where someone, perhaps a rival, is trying to undermine that decision-making. For instance, when the decision is about choosing a government, there may be players who want to disrupt this process and make it more complicated than ever before.

Is there a limit to this shift?

Well, A.I. is only as powerful as the metrics behind it.

And who controls the metrics?