'Almost started a war': How an AI error led to a close call between US and China
A US military analyst nearly triggered a conflict with China after using an AI chatbot that incorrectly identified cargo on a ship as nuclear-related. The false intelligence report moved through official channels before being caught just before a planned military interception.
Why it matters
This incident highlights the dangerous risks of integrating unverified AI tools into high-stakes military decision-making processes.
An intelligence report circulated across the US military this spring during the war with Iran set off an alarming chain of events after it claimed that a Chinese ship in the Middle East was carrying components linked to a nuclear weapons programme.According to CNN, the report prompted the US military to prepare an operation to intercept the vessel. Armed US personnel were preparing to board the ship, while military aircraft were already in the air, according to sources familiar with the episode. It was only shortly before the planned operation that officials took a closer look at the intelligence and discovered that it had been produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence.The chatbot used by a US Special Operations Command analyst had incorrectly identified the material listed in the ship's manifest.
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