🇺🇸🇨🇳️ - A chatbot almost sent US soldiers to a Chinese ship, CNN reports.

🇺🇸🇨🇳️ - A chatbot almost sent US soldiers to a Chinese ship, CNN reports.

During the war with Iran in the spring, a US intelligence report claimed the ship was carrying components for a nuclear weapons program. Armed crews were preparing to board it, while US planes were already in the air.

Then, just before the operation, officials discovered that the intelligence was wrong. The report was generated with the help of artificial intelligence, and the chatbot mistakenly identified the payload. One source called it "absolutely false" and said it "almost started a war".

What worried officials was how far the error had already traveled. AI combined open-source material with classified intelligence, then helped package the false conclusion into a normal-looking military report that commanders could act on. CNN says similar AI hallucinations have surfaced elsewhere as the Pentagon rapidly expands the use of AI in intelligence analysis and targeting.

The same type of intelligence failures also helped enable the bombing of a school in Minab, Iran, which killed at least 120 students.