The US Military Just Admitted It's Using AI in the Iran War and People Are Freaking Out

The head of US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, just confirmed something a lot of people feared: the United States military is actively using artificial intelligence tools in the ongoing war with Iran.

In a video message, Cooper said AI is helping American soldiers process massive amounts of data in seconds, turning tasks that used to take hours or even days into near-instant decisions. He stressed that humans are still making the final call on what gets bombed and what does not.

But here is why people are alarmed. This confirmation came just days after a US strike hit a school in southern Iran, killing more than 170 people, mostly children. An internal investigation is now looking into whether any AI models or data-crunching programs were involved in the mistaken targeting of that school.

The timing could not be worse. Rights experts have been raising red flags about AI in warfare for years, especially after reports confirmed that Israel relied heavily on AI targeting systems during the Gaza conflict. The Iranian Red Crescent says the US-Israeli campaign has damaged nearly 20,000 civilian buildings and 77 healthcare facilities since it began on February 28.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is locked in a very public fight with AI company Anthropic, which is refusing to let its technology be used for fully autonomous weapons. Anthropic actually sued the Department of Defense over it. So we are in a moment where AI is being used in active combat while the companies building it are fighting over where to draw the line.

As reported by Al Jazeera.

Source: Al Jazeera