The terrible human toll in Gaza has many causes.
A chilling investigation by +972 highlights efficiency:
An engineer: “When a 3-year-old girl is killed in a home in Gaza, it’s because someone in the army decided it wasn’t a big deal for her to be killed.”
An AI outputs "100 targets a day". Like a factory with murder delivery:
"According to the investigation, another reason for the large number of targets, and the extensive harm to civilian life in Gaza, is the widespread use of a system called “Habsora” (“The Gospel”), which is largely built on artificial intelligence and can “generate” targets almost automatically at a rate that far exceeds what was previously possible. This AI system, as described by a former intelligence officer, essentially facilitates a “mass assassination factory.”"
"The third is “power targets,” which includes high-rises and residential towers in the heart of cities, and public buildings such as universities, banks, and government offices."
"The unit is engaged in the same kind of AI work that the world’s biggest tech companies, like Google, Facebook and China’s Baidu are doing in a race to apply machine learning to such functions as self-driving cars, analysis of salespeople’s telephone pitches and cybersecurity — or to fight Israel’s next war more intelligently."
“I’ve always loved algorithms. I was already involved with them in high school and worked in the field. When I [was] drafted I wanted to combine the technology with a combat,” Maj. Sefi Cohen, 34, recalls.
The unit’s only female member left recently. so for the moment it’s an all-male team. Cohen says: “Everyone who’s here is the tops.”
I'm a big fan of #CRediT and I finally got around to reading this paper about a "new system", #MeRIT. I put that in quotes because it's literally just adding 8 new categories to CRediT. They’re good additions, but a 5 page comment in nature communications with two figures to say "we wanted to add to CRediT, so we made a new thing instead”? Did anyone consider maybe just changing CRediT? Are things not allowed to change without new names and associated publications? #academia#AcademicChatter
How technical knowledge became the preserve of a ‘meritorious’ upper-caste elite: an interview with Ajantha Subramanian, author of 'The Caste of Merit: Engineering Education in India'. (From October 2020)
Even Doctors Who Have Scored No Marks in NEET PG Can Now Become Specialists
The health ministry on Wednesday issued a notification reducing the cut-off for NEET PG to zero percentile. The move will benefit private colleges that charge exorbitant fees, critics say.
If Donald #Trump wins a second term, he & his allies want to revive a plan to allow a #president to #fire#CivilService workers who are supposed to be hired on #merit. The Biden administration is trying to thwart it.
The rule addresses a move #Trump tried to make late in his presidency by issuing an EO known in shorthand as #ScheduleF. It would have empowered his admin to strip #JobProtections from #career#federal#employees — who are supposed to be hired based on #merit & cannot be arbitrarily fired. While the EO said agencies should not hire or fire Schedule F employees based on #political affiliation, it effectively would have made these employees more like political appointees who can be #fired#AtWill.