The artificial intelligence software that runs the US war in Iran

To attack about 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours of the attack on Iran, the US military made use of the most advanced artificial intelligence ever used on the battlefield. This is a smart system that will be difficult for the Pentagon to give up, even if it cuts its ties with the company that developed it.

The system, which was integrated into the Pentagon at the end of 2024, currently serves over 20 thousand military personnel. At the same time as the American attacks, the IDF reported thousands of hours of close cooperation with the US Army to build an extensive target bank. Experts, such as Paul Schaar of the Center for a New American Security, warn that while the system allows for planning “at machine speed instead of human speed,” humans must monitor it because it is “sometimes wrong.” Now that “Cloud” is on the way out, giants like Elon Musk’s xAI and OpenAI have already signed agreements to take his place at the heart of the American war machine.