A U.S. military strike on a girls’ school in the Iranian city of Minab may have been triggered by an artificial intelligence error. According to The Independent, neural network algorithms could have mistakenly classified the school as a military facility.

The report says the building appeared on the target list possibly because of confusion during the analysis of intelligence data. The precise cause of the error remains unclear. Analysts suggest it could have resulted either from outdated information or from the influence of automated analytical systems on the decisions made by officials.

Final conclusions are expected after the Pentagon releases the results of its ongoing investigation. Preliminary assessments cited in the report indicate that responsibility for the incident lies with the American side.

The publication notes that the U.S. military relies on a vast pool of intelligence when selecting targets, with some of the information collected over many years. In the weeks leading up to the strikes on Iran, hundreds of new locations were reportedly added to the list of potential targets, significantly increasing the volume of data that had to be reviewed before the operation.

It is also considered possible that the school’s location had previously been treated as part of a nearby military complex, which could explain how the site entered the database of potential targets.

According to the report, targets for Operation «Epic Rage» were identified using the Maven Smart System developed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The system integrates surveillance and intelligence data and presents it through a dashboard designed to support officials in decision-making.

The article also states that the analytical system known as Project Maven had been integrated with the Claude language model created by Anthropic, a step intended to accelerate the processing of intelligence information.

The strike on the school took place on February 28, the first day of the military operation conducted by the United States and Israel. The attack killed 175 people, most of them students, teachers, and parents. Another 95 people were reported injured.