As part of the audit of the Swords of Iron War, the Office of the State Comptroller is also examining how the government is dealing with the risks of artificial intelligence – as announced by Comptroller Matanyahu Englman (29.2.2024).
In a speech he gave at the annual conference of the Institute of Internal Auditors in Israel, which took place in Ness Ziona, the State Comptroller explained that the audit on the risks of AI would examine, among other things, "How the government is dealing with the awareness (influence) campaigns operated by the enemy or by other countries to create an internal crisis in Israel, one group against the other, by means of the dissemination of fake news".
The Comptroller added that "As part of the audit, we are also examining who are the relevant parties active in the matter in Israel, what are their methods of operation, what tools they possess, and whether there are any relevant blocks or gaps; is there any cooperation between them and is there a party whose role is to integrate and be responsible for monitoring and enforcing threats to national security and democratic values on the social networks?".
The audit will also examine whether the operational concept formulated by the IDF in the matter at the end of 2022 is being implemented during the Swords of Iron War. The Comptroller will also examine whether any actions have been taken to raise public awareness of the danger: "The more the public will be made aware of the existence of awareness influence campaigns on the social networks, the more it will be critical of what is being done in this dimension, and at the end of the day this is likely to have an effect on the effectiveness of this pattern of behavior".
The audit will also examine the need for regulation of the legislation for imposing liability on the social networks in all matters pertaining to the content they publish: "As opposed to the European Union countries, where the Digital Services Act (DSA) has been enacted, being responsible for the regulation and handling of illegal content online, the State of Israel has not provided the appropriate legislative framework for the imposition of liability on the social networks".
