Brigadier General Yossi Sariel, head of Israel’s most famous intelligence unit, unwittingly revealed his identity in early April. According to information from the British media The Guardian, the publication of his book signed with his initials is at the origin of this leak.
A secret service, but a public blunder. The enigmatic commander of Israeli Unit 8200, the most famous intelligence unit, comparable to the American CIA, now has a name: Yossi Sariel. According to information from the British media The Guardianhis identity was revealed after his book written under his pen name finally revealed his real surname.
Passionate about the potential for using artificial intelligence and its use in future wars, Yossi Sariel published, in May 2021, a book entitled The Human Machine Team. In this work which has the subtitle “How can we create a synergy between human and artificial intelligence that will revolutionize our world?” the author signs with his initials: “YS”
VSLike all writers without a publishing house, the general therefore opens a seller account on the Amazon site. However, this automatically links to his Gmail account, which displays his name in its entirety. The security breach was first spotted by a WhatsApp group made up of former officers of Unit 8,200. Then, this Friday, April 5, the identity of the head of the mysterious elite cyber-intelligence division appeared publicly in the Guardian. A big unboxing.
Later in the day, the Israeli armed forces then called this revelation of“error”adding that the question would be “examined in order to avoid similar cases occurring in the future”. This security breach puts pressure on the Brigadier General, who, as detailed in the Guardian, “lives and breathes” intelligence, but whose mandate at the head of unit 8200 is called into question.
A service in turmoil after the attack of October 7
In his book, Yossi Sariel highlights an AI-powered model that the Israeli Defense Forces notably applied during the war between Hamas and Israel. He refers to “a revolution” occurred in recent years within the IDF, which “developed a new concept of intelligence-centric warfare to connect intelligence to combatants on the ground,” note The Guardian. But since the start of this war in October 2023, this massive use of super-algorithms by unit 8200, and in particular by the Brigadier General, has been singled out.
An article from New York Times for example revealed, in December 2023, that a non-commissioned officer in the intelligence unit had precisely described the attack of October 7, with numerous details, without however giving a precise date. Due to the system established by Yossi Sariel replacing human analysts with Artificial Intelligence – and poor Arabic language skills – the report was automatically blocked by Artificial Intelligence, and, in fact, buried.
An investigation by the Israeli magazine +972 also revealed, Wednesday April 3, the existence of an artificial intelligence program, called Lavender, used as part of the war in the Gaza Strip. According to the online media, this program played a central role in the bombings carried out by Israel, with such influence that the results of the machine were taken into account “as if it were a human decision”, and without worrying about a 10% margin of error. In a section of his book, Yossi Sariel also focused, from 2021, on this concept of a “target machine” powered by AI. Descriptions that closely resemble the decision support systems the IDF relies on to bomb Gaza.