On another book – Amos Harel in Haaretz:

‘Brig. Gen. Y., commander of Unit 8200 in the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence, has apparently set a precedent. It’s difficult to recall another case in recent decades of a senior officer in active service publishing a book dealing with concepts and working methods in his professional realm. And when the book deals with one of the hottest topics in the field of technology – the use of artificial intelligence – and is even for sale on Amazon, it’s definitely a special case.’

(…)

‘The blurb describes Y. as “one of the world’s leading managers in the field of Artificial Intelligence,” a recipient of “the prestigious Israel Defense Prize,” an “expert analyst” and the “commander of an elite intelligence unit.” The blurb states that the book “unveils the secrets to creating synergy… that will revolutionize our world.” In fact, the book discusses complex subjects for readers who are not necessarily technology or intelligence experts, without being able to enter into the in-depth details of the nature of intelligence work. But Y. appears to have overcome these hurdles safely.
At present, Y. writes, “we are only at the threshold of the acceleration of the Digital Era.” The result is that large companies and organizations, including intelligence agencies, will be compelled to enhance the joint work of researchers and computer systems. “A machine can use big data to generate information better than humans. However, a machine can’t understand context, doesn’t have feelings or ethics, and can’t think ‘out of the box.’ Therefore, rather than prioritizing between humans and machines, this book is about The Human-Machine Team (‘super-cognition’) and about the collaboration between human intelligence and artificial intelligence.”’

(…)

‘Y. begins the book by describing the October 2018 attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue. An antisemitic terrorist, Robert Bowers, shot and murdered 11 worshippers and wounded six others. An hour before the attack, he wrote a post in social media in which he accused a Jewish organization that aids foreign refugees of “bring[ing] invaders in that kill our people” and warned that “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered.” Y. continues: “Now imagine that an hour before the murderous attack, a red light flashed in the synagogue with a sign that read ‘Beware: there is an unfamiliar cellphone in the synagogue compound.’” Let’s imagine further, the author goes on, that “a camera – equipped with facial recognition – identified Bowers, alerted police to an imminent threat and activated an alarm inside the synagogue.” A few months before the assault, the murderer was issued a license to carry firearms, even though he had previously published sharp attacks against Jews. Imagine further, then, that his post had been monitored in time and crossmatched with the available information. (In actuality, Bowers was not known to the authorities and was not on a watch list.)’

(…)

‘The solution proposed by Y. has already been is use for some years, of course, but not in Western democracies. Israel makes use of similar methods in the territories, following lessons gleaned from the “stabbing intifada” in the fall of 2015.
Y. recalls how funerals followed one another in rapid succession during that period. He and others were constantly telling themselves that there must be some sort of signal which, if detected, could prevent an attack. The sense of a crisis grew more acute as time passed and intelligence was of little help. Finally, intelligence personnel realized that the way they had done their job for decades was insufficient to meet the challenge. The solution was found in teamwork. The human role was to provide examples as to the character of previous attacks; the machine role was to scan the databases. By that method, dozens of attacks a month were prevented.’

(…)

‘He does not foresee a dystopian future in which machines will seize control of humans and make strategic decisions. However, he writes about the “development of cognitive ability,” such as the collection and analysis of information, its processing and reorganization, and the ability of machines to learn from experience in order to give feedback, make evaluations and even arrive at conclusions.’

(…)

‘In the decades ahead, Y. writes, analysts who analyze language (recordings and computer printouts) and aerial photographs will gradually disappear and be replaced by machines. Already within five years, there will be no further need for 80 percent of the listeners in intelligence organizations, because that job will be handled by computers. A large part of intelligence gather will be conducted by thousands of drones.
The military challenge facing Israel will be to forge a tighter connection between the “fire” effort (the attacks) and the intelligence effort (the data), in a manner that will locate targets for an attack in real time, while causing minimum damage to civilians. The pressure on the enemy in a war will make them want to end it earlier, but “there is a human bottleneck,” because humans do not have the ability to process so much data. The answer lies in the human-machine team.
In the decades ahead, Y. writes, analysts who analyze language (recordings and computer printouts) and aerial photographs will gradually disappear and be replaced by machines. Already within five years, there will be no further need for 80 percent of the listeners in intelligence organizations, because that job will be handled by computers. A large part of intelligence gather will be conducted by thousands of drones.
The military challenge facing Israel will be to forge a tighter connection between the “fire” effort (the attacks) and the intelligence effort (the data), in a manner that will locate targets for an attack in real time, while causing minimum damage to civilians. The pressure on the enemy in a war will make them want to end it earlier, but “there is a human bottleneck,” because humans do not have the ability to process so much data. The answer lies in the human-machine team.
Like Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, Y. describes a “targets machine,” based on intelligence, as a “game changer” that could obtain victory for Israel in a war. The AI revolution, he writes, gives humans new glasses to look through for every challenge and mission.’

Read the complete article here.

Why was this book published for a general audience? That’s the first question. Vanity appears to be a bit of a shallow answer, but who knows. Maybe all information in this book was already known to ‘the enemy.’

The author doesn’t worry about a police state, that’s from his position not a big surprise, but it seems to me worrisome that an unknown cell phone in certain areas (not a military base, but a synagogue) will already trigger an alarm.

Also, the other side sooner or later will build ways around this system. Or will appear without cell phone. (This ‘philosophy’ gave Bin Laden I would say 5 to 6 more years.)

Analyzing data and looking for anomalies is something that AI is better at and above all faster than humans, but what data are being analyzed? Based on the Pittsburgh example: first and foremost social media.

A gold mine for those looking for, let’s say, anomalies.