Israel Encourages Development Of Artificial Intelligence In Military Operations

Colonel Eli Birenbaum, head of Israel's military operational data and application unit. (photo: twitter @ETtech)

JAKARTA - In the latest conflict in Gaza last month, Israeli commanders used the "Knowledge Well", a bot that provides an overview of the launch of Palestinian rockets - where they were launched, at what level and distance - through a platform based on the WhatsApp model.

For the next conflict, Colonel Eli Birenbaum, head of the military's operational data and application unit, plans to use artificial intelligence aggregation to predict rocket attacks.

"This is an interesting step forward. I want to be somewhere where I can use information to provide capabilities to our troops on the pitch," Birenbaum said in an interview with Reuters.

"About half of Israel's military technologists will focus on artificial intelligence by 2028," Birenbaum said, as part of a shift that has been going on since he became head of their first machine learning platform - designed to detect hacking attempts - in 2016.

Currently, according to Birenbaum, there are "100s of people" involved in projects related to artificial intelligence at large, which is 20% of military technologists. Within five years, their numbers will reach thousands, he estimates.

He gained government support, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raising the defense budget and pledging to make Israel a "central force" of artificial intelligence.

However, this poses obstacles in recruiting personnel: By eliminating the role of low-level programming, artificial intelligence will require humans for jobs that require intensive training.

Making a data scientist from scratch "means to tell an 18-year-old: 'Listen, this is your future... You have to commit to a bachelor's degree, master's degree, and then serve six years in military service,'" Birenbaum said at his headquarters near Tel Aviv, a computer room where troops consulted calmly around the screen amid the sound of a large server cooler.

During their mandatory military service period - two years for women, 32 months for men - military technologists get a monthly salary of US$335 (Rp4.9 million). In the first few years after their service, their salaries rose to around US$2,300 (Rp34.2 million), Birenbaum said - well below the US$8,400 (Rp125 million) they may have obtained in equal civil work.

"It's no secret that I can't compete with Google or Facebook salaries," he said. "What can I offer? Meaning."

"We don't repair the buttons in the program. We solve the country-level problems. It's not about looking for needles in a single straw, but in eight, 80, 8,000 straws piled up above each other," Birenbaum said.

The military around the world is considering moral implications in the artificial intelligence (AI) arms race. For Israel, the use of AI in target acquisition will not mean automatic target destruction, as emphasized by Birenbaum. "In the predictable future, there will always be people involved in the process," he said.

The use of artificial intelligence in military operations provides great benefits to Israel. With real-time data analysis and more accurate predictions, troops can respond more effectively and on time to existing threats. However, the challenges in recruiting and training competent personnel in this field are still obstacles that must be overcome.

Israel, with the support of the government and a commitment to become the center of artificial intelligence, continues to invest in this technology. In the coming years, it is hoped that the number of military technologists involved in artificial intelligence projects will increase significantly, allowing Israel to remain at the forefront of military innovation.

By combining human capabilities and artificial intelligence, Israel aims to ensure operational and security excellence in increasingly complex battles.