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Middle East and North Africa

US admits to using AI to identify targets for airstrikes in Middle East

The US defense official also said that Washington is looking for "an awful lot" of rocket launchers from hostile forces in the region

NEW YORK, February 26. /TASS/. The United States used artificial intelligence (AI) to identify targets for airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in early February, a US defense official said.

According to Schuyler Moore, chief technology officer for US Central Command (CENTCOM), the US used machine learning technologies to hone in on potential targets. "We’ve been using computer vision to identify where there might be threats," she told Bloomberg News. She also said that the US is looking for "an awful lot" of rocket launchers from hostile forces in the region.

On February 2, the US attacked the positions of pro-Iranian groups in a number of border areas in Iraq and Syria. According to CENTCOM, the airstrikes hit more than 85 targets of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, elite units of the Iranian armed forces) and related groups.

The series of airstrikes came in retaliation to the attack on a US military facility in Jordan in late January, the US claimed. According to the Pentagon, the late January drone attack claimed the lives of three US soldiers, with more than 40 more being wounded.

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Middle East and North Africa United States

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