Faulty US intel report produced with AI almost started war with China over Iran — report

A US intelligence report produced by AI “almost started a war” between Washington and Beijing after it mistakenly said a Chinese ship was carrying nuclear components to Iran during the Middle East war, CNN reports, citing sources familiar with the episode.

The US military prepared to seize the vessel, and “military planes were in the air,” CNN says, before officials dug deeper and realized the report was written with the help of a chatbot that misidentified the cargo. CNN says it was unable to ascertain what the actual cargo was.

According to the network, a US military analyst had queried the chatbot about intelligence from the Hawaii-based US Special Operations Command Pacific about the ship, and the chatbot based its faulty response on both open-source and secret signals intelligence.

It was unclear whether the bot was a commercial or government product, CNN says, adding that neither the Pentagon nor Special Operations Command Pacific responded to a request for comment.