Israeli military commanders have successfully used artificial intelligence (AI) to predict enemy missile strikes during recent clashes with Palestine. Israeli Colonel Eli Birenbaum, who heads the operational data and applications of the army, plans to use AI even more extensively during future battles. “This is an interesting step forward that we have to take. I want to be where I can best use the information to ensure the advantage of our forces on the battlefield,” said Birenbaum. By 2028, around half of Israel’s military technologists will be engaged in developing AI, according to the colonel. The automatic defensive systems’ plan began in 2016 when Birenbaum led the development of an AI-driven machine learning platform.
Hundreds of employees currently work in the Israeli armed forces on various AI projects, representing about 20% of all military technologists. Over the next five years, however, it is hoped their number will swell to several thousand. But with intense competition from major private tech firms, the military has to find ways to encourage school leavers to study for six years at university and then for six years in the army.
Birenbaum admitted the military could not compete with Google or Facebook on salaries, but it could offer meaning to technology. The job wasn’t “repairing some kind of button in the program”, but was about “solving the problems of the national level,” he said. Using AI to identify potential targets in wartime did not mean automatic destruction of such targets, Birenbaum emphasised, hinting that the technology could have peaceful uses.