Portland AI Company Ships Targeting Tech to Israeli Drone Maker |
Special Investigations
Press Freedom Defense Fund
Portland AI Company Ships Targeting Tech to Israeli Drone Maker
Sightline Intelligence specializes in video processing and claims its AI can separate civilians from militants.
A company in Portland, Oregon, that specializes in AI targeting for drones has made significant shipments of materials to military contractors in Israel, according to cargo data reviewed by The Intercept. The shipments raise the possibility thaat a boutique Pacific Northwest tech firm has helped the Israeli military attack people in places like Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, among others.
Sightline Intelligence, a firm focused on AI video processing, has made at least 10 shipments of hardware to the Israeli weapons giant Elbit Systems since 2024, according to investigators with the Movement Research Unit, the group that originally obtained the documents.
The revelation that a local company has been doing business with Israel has led to protests by activists in Portland.
“We really want our city councilors to help us follow up and look into what Sightline is doing,” said Olivia Katbi, a member of Portland Democratic Socialists of America and an organizer with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. “Are they producing these items here in our city? What is their relationship with Elbit Systems in Israel?”
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Drones have become a crucial part of Israel’s military strategy, allowing it to mount deadly attacks without endangering its own troops, said Movement Research Unit’s Abdullah F., who asked to omit his last name due to the sensitivity of his work.
“They’ve been connected to the death of many civilians,” he said, “and they’re a critical part also of the surveillance architecture.”
Researchers with the Movement Research Unit, which gathers information for left-wing organizations and causes, said they pinpointed 10 shipments from Sightline to Elbit Systems in Israel. Four of the shipments went to an Elbit facility in the city of Karmiel, Israel; four to Rehovot; one to Holon; and one to Haifa.
The Intercept was able to independently verify the dates and corresponding cargo weights of those shipments from Portland to Israel.
Six of the shipments passed through John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and four went through Newark International Airport in New Jersey. (Sightline, its parent company Acron Technologies, and Elbit Systems did not respond to requests for comment.)
Using commercial data drawn from cargo manifests, the researchers found that the shipments included SLA-3000-OEM embedded video processing boards and associated components that are part of a surveillance system that can be used for target recognition.
“We can all imagine how decisions might be made based on that algorithm.”
“We can all imagine how decisions might be made based on that algorithm.”
In marketing materials, the company says the tech can quickly identify people and vehicles on the ground and classify them as civilians, military targets, armed targets, or people willing or unwilling to surrender. It assigns a percentage to the confidence of these........