On February 28, 178 Iranians—123 of whom were schoolchildren—lost their lives following a missile strike launched by the US military. Two Tomahawk missiles struck the Shajarah Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, Iran; initially, the US denied responsibility, claiming the missile had been launched by Iran itself.
However, a report published by the Pentagon confirmed their responsibility. The error occurred due to an over-reliance on incomplete information, outdated imagery, and an excessive dependence on artificial intelligence (AI).
The report also noted that some personnel at US Central Command relied too heavily on Palantir’s Maven AI system to process intelligence data that was outdated or inconsistent. The school in Minab remained designated as a target despite the building having served as a school for over a decade—with open-source information clearly identifying it as such.
This is not the first time a US-launched weapon has claimed civilian lives. In 1988, Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by the warship USS Vincennes, resulting in 290 fatalities; the flight was downed after being mistaken for an aircraft intending to attack the USS Vincennes.
This incident marks the second time an AI system—not yet fully tested in a combat environment—has been implicated in such an error. An AI-generated report nearly led the US military to attack a Chinese cargo ship suspected of carrying nuclear components for Iran.
