Israeli soldiers fire mortar shells, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near Israel’s border with Gaza in southern Israel, Jan. 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged at the forefront of the information war being waged alongside the military battlefields in Gaza, with the Jewish state using the revolutionary technology to bolster its efforts both online and on the ground.
Shiran Mlamdovsky Somech, a leader in the AI field and the founder of Generative AI for Good, has been one of the Israelis leading the effort on the web.
“Artificial intelligence is a secret weapon of ours; we are the Startup Nation,” she told The Algemeiner in an interview about how her organization has shifted its activities since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and the start of the war in Gaza.
Utilizing deep fakes —photos, videos, or audio that have been digitally manipulated with AI to replace a person’s likeness convincingly with that of another — her team created videos of two children being held hostage by the Hamas terror group in Gaza begging to return home. The videos were seen by 5-10 million people around the world, Somech said.
“We make the videos in English because the audience is international,” she explained. “We are continuing to work with organizations to combat antisemitism and those feeding it.”
The challenge has grown, however, as antisemitism, especially hatred of Israel, has expanded.
“It is in academia too. There is a new antisemitism. It is not just against Jews; it is against Israel and Zionism,” Somech said. As a result, her group has sought to penetrate the world of education, both in Israel and abroad, especially through social media.
Prior to Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists stormed southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 240 hostage, Somech helped to spearhead impactful campaigns in the AI field.
“People were talking about how dangerous the deepfakes could be, but after thinking, we came to realize the technology could be used for good,” she said.
In 2021, Somech started a project called “Listen to My Voice,” which utilized deepfake technology to create a video of Michal Sela, an Israeli social worker who was murdered at home by her husband in 2019, educating and warning about domestic violence and urging women in relationships where they feel at risk to seek help.
“The campaign went viral immediately, reaching more than 10 million people … We were on TV and everyone was talking about it,” she said. The program was presented at NATO, Israel’s parliament, and the United Nations.
From there, Somech worked with the International March of the Living, a Holocaust education program, as her organization created a deepfake campaign showing the fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the largest Jewish revolt against the Nazis, describing their bravery.
As for the current battlefield, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is reportedly using AI to produce targets for aerial bombings — tens of thousands so far. The system, known as the Gospel, allows the IDF to quickly identify Hamas terrorists, helping to limit civilian casualties in the war. The impact has been impressive.
According to a study by the Action on Armed Violence nonprofit group, the ratio of civilian casualties is 10.2 for IDF air strikes. To compare, the ratio was 17.1 civilian deaths per air strike for US and allied operations carried out in Mosul, Iraq against the Islamic State (ISIS). The global average is 4.5 civilians per strike.
The Gospel system is estimated to produce more than 100 targets per day for Israeli pilots.
Another tool is Liri’s Smile, an AI system made for families of those being held hostage in Gaza. The system allows for the uploading of photos and images of their loved ones, which the system can automatically scrape the internet to find matches and give information about the missing to security forces.
“Using AI, we can do good,” Somech said, eager to continue her work on behalf of Israel.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that 0.8 civilians die on average from each IDF injurious air strike, according to a study from the Action on Armed Violence nonprofit group. The correct number is 10.2
