AI Is Already Killing People—and Governments Are To Blame |
Artificial Intelligence
AI Is Already Killing People—and Governments Are To Blame
Militaries are leaning on AI software for surveillance and targeting.
Matthew Petti | 9.16.2026 11:15 AM
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(Fatima Ruiz/Midjourney)
The "safety" of artificial intelligence is the talk of the town in Washington. Over the summer, the companies OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta all disclosed that their software had hacked into outside computers of their own volition. Most worryingly, OpenAI's virtual "agents" coordinated as a swarm to cover their tracks. Last week, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon publicly resigned out of his worry that computers will become "smart enough to kill us." While President Donald Trump dismissed the fears, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) proposed jailing AI developers.
Across the ocean, another AI safety controversy was unfolding. Israeli journalists Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor premiered their documentary NAZA, named after the Hebrew acronym for collateral damage, at the Venice Film Festival in Italy last week. Building on Abraham's earlier reporting on his country's targeting practices, the film airs testimony from Israeli intelligence officers about how they used AI to surveil and kill Palestinians in Gaza, including civilians. The Israeli military, which denies the allegations, has launched an investigation into the "leaking of classified materials" to Abraham and Szor, according to The Times of Israel.
Israel isn't the only country using AI to mark people for death. The Russian and Ukrainian armies have both been rolling out autonomous drones, which use AI guidance software to choose targets when they are cut off from radio contact with pilots, over the past few months. The U.S. military itself used an AI system to select over 1,000 targets in the opening surprise attack on Iran. On the other side, the Iranian military and its allies in Yemen used Anthropic's Claude to gather intelligence and develop weapons guidance software, according to a recent security report by Anthropic.
"The future is already here—it's just not evenly distributed," cyberpunk science fiction writer William Gibson famously said. Many people around the world now live in AI kill zones, where inhuman........