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AI in war and politics: Documentaries show Big Tech's growing power

From VRT NWS · () Dutch

Translated from Dutch, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Sources not specified Context piece
  • Two documentaries highlight the growing power of Big Tech companies in warfare and politics, moving beyond theoretical AI to current applications.
  • The films 'Click to Kill: The AI War Machine' and 'Trump and the Tech Titans' show AI's role in drone warfare and political influence, with examples from Israel and Ukraine.
  • The documentaries raise questions about accountability for AI errors, particularly concerning civilian casualties in conflict zones.

Two powerful documentaries reveal how Big Tech companies are increasingly wielding influence in war and politics, demonstrating that artificial intelligence is no longer a future concept but a present reality. The films, "Click to Kill: The AI War Machine" and "Trump and the Tech Titans," available on VRT MAX, expose how AI software, familiar from everyday use, is now deeply embedded in global conflicts and political power struggles.

"Krankzinnig," exclaims U.S. Sergeant Tobias Kohl, observing a drone on a screen during a NATO exercise in Germany. While he operates drones, the idea of a machine autonomously deciding who lives or dies visibly troubles him. The conflict in Ukraine, where drones reportedly operate independently and launch attacks, serves as a stark example of this evolving reality.

Crazy.

— Tobias KohlU.S. Sergeant Tobias Kohl expresses his unease about drones making life-or-death decisions.

The documentaries challenge the perception of AI as solely related to chatbots and search engines. They illustrate AI's application in warfare, with systems scanning images, processing data, and identifying targets. Israel, for instance, has employed such systems since around 2015 to predict potential threats, assigning risk scores to thousands of Palestinians and subjecting them to surveillance. A former Israeli intelligence official reflects on this period with mixed feelings, recalling a belief that technology had solved many problems, a sentiment shattered by the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.

Ukraine has become a testing ground for future warfare, where AI is increasingly used to generate target lists rapidly, a task previously handled by numerous human analysts. This shift raises critical questions about responsibility: who is accountable when civilians die due to misclassification by an AI system? The documentaries suggest that the effectiveness of these algorithms is directly tied to the data they are trained on, leaving the issue of false positives and their tragic consequences unresolved.

We really thought technology had solved most of our problems.

— Former Israeli intelligence officialReflecting on the use of predictive AI systems before the October 7th attacks.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by VRT NWS in Dutch. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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