In this episode of Algorithms of Empire, we speak with Kinan Imseis, Research Fellow at the Clay-Gilmore Institute for Philosophy, Technology, and Counterinsurgency, about his essay “AI and its Matrix of Control.” The conversation explores how artificial intelligence is being used in the Occupied Palestinian Territories not simply as a new military technology, but as part of a broader system of occupation, surveillance, and target acquisition.Drawing from the idea of a “matrix of control,” Imseis’s essay asks how AI strengthens existing structures of domination by making monitoring, classification, and targeting more expansive and efficient.The discussion focuses on how Palestine has functioned as a testing ground for technologies of control that can later circulate globally through military, policing, and security markets. Imseis examines systems such as Lavender and “Where’s Your Daddy?” to show how algorithmic tools can reshape military judgment, produce the appearance of precision, and distance decision-makers from the violence carried out in their name. Rather than treating AI as neutral or merely technical, the conversation considers how these systems inherit older colonial and counterinsurgent assumptions about who is dangerous, disposable, or targetable.A central theme of the episode is the production of the “outgroup male target.” The conversation asks why racialized and colonized men are so often positioned as presumptive threats within surveillance and military systems, and how AI can intensify this logic under the language of data and objectivity. The episode concludes by raising urgent questions about accountability, international law, and public resistance in an age where algorithmic systems increasingly shape how states surveil, police, and wage war.