Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, is leveraging a vast collection of intercepted Palestinian communications to develop a powerful artificial intelligence tool akin to ChatGPT, aiming to significantly enhance its surveillance capabilities. This project, revealed through an investigation by the Guardian, in collaboration with Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, illustrates how the unit has been training AI models to understand spoken Arabic. Drawing on telephone conversations and text messages obtained through extensive surveillance in the occupied territories, Unit 8200 envisions using this technology to create a sophisticated chatbot capable of analyzing individuals under surveillance and providing insights from large volumes of data collected. Starting around the time of the Gaza conflict in October 2023, the initiative has seen acceleration in the development of this system, although its deployment status remains unclear. Experts and human rights campaigners express concerns over the potential amplification of biases, data inaccuracies, and the challenge of understanding how AI-generated insights are derived. The project highlights the worldwide trend among spy agencies, including those in the US and the UK, to harness AI for complex analytical tasks, underscoring the balance between technological advancements and human rights considerations.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/06/israel-military-ai-surveillance