US struck school in Iran due to AI - Bloomberg
A Pentagon internal investigation has concluded that an erroneous US missile strike on an elementary school in Iran was caused by outdated intelligence and over-reliance on artificial intelligence systems. Two Tomahawk cruise missiles hit the school building in Minab, killing more than 150 people, including 123 children. The investigation revealed that the facility had been converted from military to school use back in 2018, but the data was not entered into the targeting system.
A Pentagon internal investigation has concluded that an erroneous US missile strike on an elementary school in Iran was caused by outdated intelligence and over-reliance on artificial intelligence systems. This was reported by Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the investigation. Two Tomahawk cruise missiles struck the two-story building of the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in southern Minab on February 28, killing more than 150 people, including at least 123 children. The administration of US President Donald Trump had tasked conducting a large-scale air operation, on the first day of which strikes were carried out on more than a thousand targets in Iran. The tight timeframe led to haste in verifying information. The complex in Minab was previously listed as a military facility, but satellite images as early as 2017 showed it had been converted. By 2018, satellite images showed the facility was being used as a school, but the updated data in 2019 was not entered into the main targeting system. The investigation also revealed problems with the use of Palantir's Maven AI system: the military expected it to detect outdated data, but responsibility for its quality remained with the government. After the incident, developers added a function for re-verifying information. The full version of the Pentagon report remains classified.