“A chatbot did not kill those children. People failed to update a database, and other people built a system fast enough to make that failure lethal.”

Maven, the program Google was forced to pull out of and Palantir took over, was the system that identified the girls’ school as a target.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/mar/26/ai-got-the-blame-for-the-iran-school-bombing-the-truth-is-far-more-worrying

#tech #google #palantir #iran #iranwar #politics

AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying

LLMs-gone-rogue dominated coverage, but had nothing to do with the targeting. Instead, it was choices made by human beings, over many years, that gave us this atrocity

The Guardian
@parismarx a country with a historical record for murdering children decided to murder more children.
@parismarx
People who allowed a chat bot to choose missile targets in a nation that hasn’t attacked us killed those girls.
@Osteopenia_Powers @parismarx 47 started this war and is wholly responsible for the murder of these girls.
@parismarx I very much think that the LLM is an excuse for bombing the targets they were going to take out anyway.

@drwho @parismarx

LLM chat bots are so good at obfuscating accountability they can do it even in situations when they're not used.

@parismarx Accountability laundering is not a new problem in tech,¹ but LLMs are making it a thousand times worse because they are specifically designed to mimicry humans and human agency.

¹ Remember how Facebook claimed it wasn't their fault Cambridge Analytica collected personal data of hundreds of millions of people and used it to convince entire countries to vote for fascists? They claimed they told CA to delete the data, but let them keep the models trained on it.

@parismarx

In-depth article detailing how the "kill chain" i.e. target acquisition and mission execution, has degraded in quality due to increased "efficiency" demands--and how that mindset is responsible for this tragedy.

https://artificialbureaucracy.substack.com/p/kill-chain

also, this is what we can expect more of (missed and misdirected hits), as "ai" is increasingly integrated into targeting evaluation.

Kill Chain

On the automated bureaucratic machinery that killed 175 children

Artificial Bureaucracy

@kitkat_blue @parismarx

Coupled with a Secretary of Defence that wants to do away with rules of engagement, these horrific crimes will continue.

@parismarx "the people refining the technique of bombing stopped asking what the bombing was for" from Sherry's 1987 book about 1944.

@parismarx

International Law needs updating.

The use of #AI in any military operation, particularly where it involves a decision resulting in fatal outcomes, should be treated as a #WarCrime.

@parismarx there might also, MAYBE, be a little bit missing about human eyes and knowledgeable brains evaluating the targets before the missiles fly. Maybe.