US Maven targeting system kills 175 at Iranian school after database error
On 28 February 2026, US forces struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Minab, Iran, killing between 175 and 180 people, most of them girls. The targeting was carried out by the Maven Smart System, built by Palantir, which had classified the building as a military facility based on an outdated Defense Intelligence Agency database. Although media attention focused on the chatbot Claude, the real failure was a bureaucratic one: the database had not been updated to reflect the building's conversion into a school years earlier. The incident highlights the lethal consequences of compressed kill chains and automated targeting infrastructure.
- Company involved
- US Department of Defense
- AI system involved
- Maven Smart System
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