Dr. Alexander Zimmerman, Head of the Innovation Department at Ramat Gan Academic College and an expert in AI, spoke with Israel National News - Arutz Sheva about the questionable contribution that videos of rocket barrages and impacts provide to the enemy who launches them.
Dr. Zimmerman begins by noting that identifying a location based on such footage does not necessarily require artificial intelligence. In fact, this is a technological capability that existed beforehand, where a computer can analyze two images and identify different features between them using mathematical and statistical data.
"The real breakthrough," he says, "is that if we want to achieve greater accuracy, we can run the data multiple times through various algorithms and try to predict what might happen next. For example, if a missile is launched at us, based on previously received data and additional information, it's easier for the machine to predict how it will behave in the air under certain weather conditions. However, even a light gust of wind, an unexpected object in its path, or remote guidance of the missile can render such predictions useless."
The set of data collected to predict a missile's trajectory has led to an 80% accuracy rate, "but of course, human lives don't operate according to statistics, and we've seen that these predictions are not always accurate enough to prevent casualties."
Regarding civilian phone footage, Dr. Zimmerman explains that current systems can precisely determine the location from which a video was sent. This is the reason for repeated warnings to the public not to record or share such footage on social media. "Every device that records, even if location services are disabled, leaves software traces that interact with multiple cell towers, which can pinpoint the device's location. The video or photo sent includes all the geographic metadata necessary to identify the exact location of the recording."
The accumulated knowledge allows experts to determine which tower transmitted the data, the distance of the mobile device from it, and many other details. This is precisely why soldiers are required to leave their phones behind — to prevent location detection in the field. "A cellphone transmits a tremendous amount of data, and we have the capability to analyze it quickly. Once such a video is uploaded to the web, it's very easy to retrieve that information."
Dr. Zimmerman adds that the very information we want to prevent from reaching the enemy — to avoid enabling accurate targeting of future strikes — is also what directs emergency services like MDA quickly to the impact site. "We are in the age of machines," he notes, emphasizing the need to balance benefit against risk. In his opinion, if the benefit outweighs the risk by even one percent, it is worth taking — as long as it does not endanger lives but only raises issues of privacy and similar concerns.