"But there’s another even more dangerous fantasy at play because this is a war that is being waged with a new generation of AI-guided missiles. What’s happening in Iran is a step-change. Gaza was the laboratory, this is the next stage. Reporting from 972 magazine in 2024 revealed the Israeli military were using an AI programme, Lavender, to find and profile targets. And last week, the WSJ and Washington Post revealed that the US deployed AI at scale. It reports the US military is using the “Maven Smart System” built by Peter Thiel’s Palantir and powered by Anthropic’s Claude to profile and select kill targets. Or as this excellent piece by the Citizens sums it up:

“The same logic that built recommendation engines and social media algorithms is now being applied to the industrial generation of kill lists. Chatbot systems that entered public life writing emails, summarising documents and telling you what to have for dinner now help determine who lives and who dies.”

Three weeks ago, details of Peter Thiel’s relationship with Epstein came tumbling out. A social, intelIigence and business relationship that saw Epstein invest $40m in Thiel’s Valar Ventures and, with the former Israeli PM, Ehud Barak, co-invest in an Israeli surveillance firm, Carbyne. This week, news of Palantir’s involvement in the US’s and Israel’s war of choice saw its stock price rise 15%.

Was it AI that selected the Iranian school where at least 168 people were killed, mostly children? Investigations by three major US news organisations - the New York Times, CNN and Reuters - have now concluded the school was hit by US bombs. Reuters identified a “double tap”, two strikes, 40 minutes apart. The open-source investigative site Bellingcat yesterday published a report that reviewed verified footage and identified the missile which hit the school to be a US Tomahawk. That report has now been independently replicated by the New York Times." —Carole Cadwalladr