AI-generated report nearly sparked conflict between US and China, CNN says
Photo: Artificial intelligence (Getty Images)
An AI-generated intelligence report for US military forces in the Middle East recommended stopping a Chinese ship allegedly carrying nuclear weapons components. This could have led to a conflict with China, CNN reports.
AI nearly sparked a conflict between the US and China
According to four sources familiar with the incident, the US military began acting on the AI's recommendation, planning to intercept the vessel.
Two sources said armed US military personnel were preparing to board the ship. Military aircraft were already in the air, according to one of those sources and another source familiar with the incident.
Just ahead of the scheduled operation, officials took a closer look at the report. They discovered that a special operations command analyst had created it using artificial intelligence. The analyst's chatbot had incorrectly identified the material the ship was carrying.
CNN was unable to find out what the misidentified cargo was.
According to one source, the report was "entirely false." But it also "almost started a war," the source said.
Any US operation against the Chinese vessel could have escalated into an armed conflict between the two countries.
How the US military uses AI
Officials in the US military and intelligence community are pushing to integrate AI into nearly every aspect of their work, including:
- analyzing vast amounts of raw intelligence data,
- selecting targets for strikes,
- managing budgets, logistics, and supply chains.
But the incident highlights the serious risks involved. The analyst had asked a chatbot about some intelligence reports concerning the ship's manifest.
The bot combined intelligence from open sources with secret signals intelligence stored in government databases. It then reached its fateful conclusion about the material the ship was carrying.
The analyst then used AI again to package the findings into a standard intelligence report and distribute it.
According to one source, this was not an isolated incident within the intelligence community since these tools began spreading throughout the government.
Earlier, RBC-Ukraine reported that OpenAI had publicly disclosed cases in which AI behaved contrary to its instructions. The developers created a new system for reporting such incidents.
