AI Drives US-Iran War, Raising Accuracy Concerns

Since Operation Epic Fury launched February 28, 2026, AI systems have enabled the US military to strike over 1,000 Iranian targets in the first 24 hours. The Maven Smart System, built by Palantir and integrating Anthropic's Claude, compresses targeting decisions from hours to minutes, with analysts processing roughly 1,000 targets daily using a fraction of previous staffing. However, Maven's accuracy rate of around 60% trails human analysts, and a strike on a girls' school killing 165 civilians has intensified scrutiny. Critics warn of automation bias and compromised human oversight, while Iran has retaliated by targeting cloud infrastructure powering US AI systems, marking what analysts call the first true AI war.