The Automated Killed Chain: Ethnographic Notes from Israel and Palestine
Speaker
Dr Sophia Goodfriend is an anthropologist whose research examines the impact of automation on military conflict. Her first academic book project is an ethnographic account of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) has impacted what it means to wage and live with war in Israel and Palestine. Alongside her academic work, Dr Goodfriend works as a journalist and is currently an investigative researcher for Airwars. Her popular writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, Foreign Policy, the Boston Review, the Baffler, 972 Magazine, and Jewish Currents, among other publications. Dr Goodfriend received her PhD in cultural anthropology from Duke University, an MA in social sciences from the University of Chicago, and was previously a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative.
Abstract
Academic and popular discussions of automated warfare often unfold in the future tense, offering forecasts of autonomous weapons systems capable of identifying and eliminating targets without human input. In contrast, this paper offers an ethnographic account of how automation is already deeply embedded in the everyday practices of military intelligence and targeting. Drawing on over five years of fieldwork across Israel and Palestine, I outline how the gradual automation of regional war and occupation intensifies violence against civilians and undermines soldiers’ capacity for ethical decision-making. At its core, this paper contributes to critical social scientific scholarship on algorithms and automation by grounding it in empirical observations of technological development within active conflict zones.
Venue
Pembroke College Auditorium, Trumpington Street, CB2 1RF
N.B. The Auditorium is opposite the main entrance into Pembroke College. It is not inside the main College. It is in the former United Reform Church building.
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Image: Lone Thomasky & Bits&Bäume / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
