I am incredibly grateful to our speakers & this summary only scratches the surface. There are too many important points that I couldn't fit into this post. I highly, highly recommend that you watch the full recording. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVrjA-5Ak0U&t=3s
This part that Marwa mentioned really broke me. I didn't know. She told us that many Palestinian families decide to live separately so that their entire bloodlines are not wiped out. It is in this context that their communication infrastructure is deliberately targeted.
As Antony said, this needs to be an election issue. The US military industrial complex is only expanding. And to the responsible AI community, you can't ignore this issue and do responsible anything. There are so many awful "AI" tools getting battle tested on Palestinians.
It was so fascinating to hear Caroline speak about her experience. Did you know she co-founded the first divestment movement in the US against apartheid South Africa? Hearing her describe the violence, the retaliations, we have a lot to learn from our elders.
Thank you to Caroline Hunter, Marwa Fatafta, Mona Shtaya, Matt Mahmoudi, Antony Loewenstein and Ariel Koko for educating us. Palestine is indeed the canary in the coalmine. As Marwa said, if you think this issue is too "radioactive" & you don't want to touch it, rest assured it will come to you.
What Matt said about soldiers playing a game of which unit is adding the most Palestinian faces to the face recognition database, and getting days off and bonuses as a result is just 🤬. The level of dehumanization is out of this world.
And Ariel told us that a Palestinian Google intern named Mai R. Ubeid was killed by Israeli air strikes. Google has yet to issue a statement on her killing. And google has YET to issue a statement! May she rest in power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSb_lgNawK0