As Israelis were still reeling from the horrors of Hamas’s October 7 attack two years ago, hundreds of tech experts mobilised in a makeshift command centre in an abandoned Tel Aviv building.
Tapping into volunteer and funding networks established in early 2023 to protest against judicial reforms spearheaded by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, they moved swiftly to identify people missing in the first days of the attack.
Using face recognition technology and other AI tools, they tracked down hundreds of people, before shifting their attention to efforts to freeing the 250 hostages seized by Hamas in the attack.