Twenty seconds to approve a military strike; 1.2 seconds to deny a health insurance claim. The human is in the AI loop. Humanity is not

The cost of hollowing out human accountability

[Source Illustration: Freepik]

In the first twenty-four hours of the war with Iran, the United States struck a thousand targets. By the end of the week, the total exceeded three thousand — twice as many as in the “shock and awe” phase of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to Pete Hegseth. This unprecedented number of strikes was made possible by artificial intelligence. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) insists that humans remain in the loop on every targeting decision, and that the AI is there to help them to make “smarter decisions faster.” But exactly what role humans can play when the systems are operating at this pace is unclear.

Israel’s use of AI-enabled targeting in its war on Hamas may offer some insights. An investigation last year reported that the Israeli........

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