In the heart of the military campaign against Iran, a Pentagon artificial intelligence program, Project Maven, plays a significant role. This unprecedented role highlights a paradigm shift for modern warfare, driven by Silicon Valley innovations and raising profound ethical questions.
Project Maven is the flagship artificial intelligence program of the American military, launched in 2017 as an experiment to help military analysts process the massive flow of images sent by drones. Operators were overwhelmed, having to work image by image to identify information elements that may only appear for a fraction of a second. Maven was designed to help them find the needle in the haystack.
Over the years, the program has expanded significantly. It has evolved into an AI-assisted targeting and battlefield management system that has accelerated the speed of the “kill chain” execution process, which ranges from detection to destruction.
Maven combines the functions of warplane control and cockpit. It merges sensor data, satellite imagery, and intelligence on friendly and enemy forces. By analyzing satellite feeds at high speed, Maven detects movements or identifies targets, while providing an instant overview of the operational theater to determine the best strike plan.
The emergence of generative AI in the past three years has allowed interacting with the system in natural language, making this technology more accessible beyond military technicians. This capability was provided by the Claude model from Anthropic, although its involvement may be short-lived after being sanctioned by the Pentagon for rejecting the use of its AI tools for fully automated strikes or surveillance of American citizens.
Ethical questions about AI were sensitive from the program’s early years, especially when Google was the original provider. In 2018, over 3,000 Google employees signed an open letter denouncing a contract that they felt crossed a red line. Several engineers resigned in protest. Google later refused to renew the contract and issued an AI charter excluding involvement in weapon systems.
In 2024, Palantir took over Google’s role as the main provider of Project Maven, with its AI technology forming the operational backbone of the program. According to Palantir’s CEO, the world now divides into those who possess this technology and those who do not. Mastery of capabilities that the rest of the world lacks is crucial, as a system capable of condensing hours of the “kill chain” process into seconds can render an opponent obsolete.
Pentagon and Palantir have declined to comment on Maven’s performance in the war with Iran. The intense pace of American strikes indicates that Maven has likely improved the targeting and firing process. During the first 24 hours of Operation Epic Fury, American forces struck over 1,000 targets, including a deadly strike on a school located in a former military building. The Pentagon is conducting an investigation into the incident.
