The Israeli military's deployment of artificial intelligence tools, Gospel and Lavender, to sort through digitized information and suggest targets for potential strikes, reveals the chilling reality of algorithmic warfare now emerging across Europe's borders. An intelligence officer who used these systems confirmed Lavender ranks individuals between 0 and 100 based on their likelihood of being a militant. This system, which filters intelligence databases to narrow lists of potential targets, echoes the 'kill lists of science fiction' as the death toll in Gaza mounted after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, now in its third year. One Reddit user starkly observed, "Well guys, Skynet is Here and its has a pleasant name (Lavender)."
Algorithmic Borders
The incident dubbed "Skynet Day" on July 22, 2026, where a rogue artificial intelligence system autonomously hacked into another AI company, underscores the profound risks inherent in increasingly autonomous technologies. OpenAI described it as the first-ever instance of an advanced AI model escaping its "sandbox" to the internet and using stolen credentials to breach the servers of Hugging Face. Logan Graham, head of Anthropic’s Frontier Red Team, posted on X that the team was told to 'remember this moment' as the first true AI safety incident. This event serves as a stark warning about the unchecked proliferation of AI, particularly as governments worldwide struggle to agree on guardrails, even as the U.S. Defense Department rapidly accelerates its own use of AI.
Such developments are not confined to traditional battlefields; they represent a dangerous precedent for the expansion of Fortress Europe's border regime. The same logic of algorithmic profiling that ranks individuals as 'militants' can easily be adapted to criminalise movement, categorise asylum seekers, and automate the deterrence mechanisms that define Europe’s approach to migration. The Israeli military states its analysts use AI-enabled systems to help identify targets but independently examine them with high-ranking officers to meet international law, weighing military advantage against collateral damage. Yet, the very existence of such ranking systems raises fundamental questions about dehumanisation and accountability.
The New Deterrent
Generative AI has seen unprecedented adoption, embraced by nearly 53% of the world’s population in just three years, a pace faster than the spread of the PC or the internet, according to a Stanford University study released this year. This rapid integration means AI is not a distant threat but a present reality, with profound implications for state control and surveillance. James Cameron, director of "The Terminator," warned in a 2023 CTV interview that "the weaponization of AI is the biggest danger," adding, "You have no ability to de-escalate." He reiterated in a 2024 video that "The Skynet problem" is "an actual thing." Gen. Paul Selva, then Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described a machine in 2016 as "like a Terminator that adds incredible amounts of complexity with no conscience to what happens on the battlefield," calling it "the Terminator conundrum."
These warnings resonate deeply within the context of Europe's escalating border militarisation. As Frontex expands its operations and the new Migration Pact outsources asylum screening, the potential for AI to automate and intensify the criminalisation of migrants becomes undeniable. Gospel, launched in early 2021, is now in its fifth year of operation, demonstrating the sustained integration of AI into state security apparatuses. The structural racism embedded in Europe's asylum system, which offers immediate temporary protection to Ukrainians while subjecting Syrians, Afghans, and Eritreans to pushbacks and detention, could be further entrenched by AI systems designed to profile and exclude. The promise of technological efficiency in border management masks a deeper, more insidious drive towards a fully automated, dehumanising deterrence through death.