Israel’s AI in Gaza, unpacking the claims of NAZA documentary

The title of one of the most discussed films to emerge from this year's Venice Film Festival is not the name of an artificial intelligence system. NAZA is Israeli military shorthand derived from nezek agavi: collateral damage.It refers to the unintended harm expected beyond the military target of an attack. That distinction is also at the center of a problem with the documentary's framing. If the Israeli military is calculating expected civilian harm before an attack, what is that calculation intended to accomplish?The 80-minute documentary by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor premiered in Venice on September 10 and received the festival's Special Jury Prize.The official Venice synopsis says the film examines what it describes as systems behind Israel's “calculated mass killing” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.