Error-Prone AI Nearly Sparked World War Three Last Month
- Reference: 0185923256
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/02/0211256/error-prone-ai-nearly-sparked-world-war-three-last-month
- Source link:
> While so many of us were focused on fictional superintelligent machines that we were told could hypothetically cause human extinction, however, there was a more serious story being reported. A series of events almost got us to armageddon, not caused by "rogue, superintelligent AI," but by government reliance on error-prone systems that are marketed by their manufacturers as being close to superintelligent.
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> A [3]CNN report published on September 18, which hasn't been verified by other major outlets, describes how the US "almost started a war" with China, based on an intelligence report that claimed a Chinese ship was transporting components of nuclear weapons. Military personnel made plans to intercept the Chinese vessel, complete with aircraft and soldiers ready to board the ship. A military skirmish of this kind between China and the US could quickly escalate and spiral into world war three.
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> It was only moments before executing on the plan that American officials further investigated the intelligence report and found that it had been generated with the use of a chatbot and contained erroneous information about the vessel's contents. Unlike the terminator, "rogue AI," scenario, this incident didn't galvanize lawmakers into announcing calls for regulation so as to avoid potential human extinction. Media outlet after media outlet didn't warn the public that we almost triggered a war against a nuclear superpower because of our military's reliance on error-prone chatbots.
[1] https://politics.slashdot.org/story/26/09/30/0523201/trump-hosts-ai-ceos-to-discuss-safety-standards-rebrands-ai-as-super-intelligence
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/01/forget-superintelligence-error-prone-ai-nearly-sparked-world-war-iii-this-month
[3] https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/18/politics/us-military-ai-false-intelligence-china-ship
SI: Subpar Intelligence (Score:3)
I think SI is a fine title because despite all tricks it can do, it still fails in basic ways that even idiots don't. As such, Subpar Intelligence is the title it has earned. I don't need anyone telling me about hypothetical futures because I'm talking about right-damn-now.
Re: (Score:2)
> I think SI is a fine title because despite all tricks it can do, it still fails in basic ways that even idiots don't. As such, Subpar Intelligence is the title it has earned. I don't need anyone telling me about hypothetical futures because I'm talking about right-damn-now.
Right-damn-now, is ToddlerAI.
A four-year old little fuckshit who isn't mature in any way. Easily persuaded and often delusional. Can be triggered by bending over Madagascar to abuse nonsensically in an asinine-flavored sentence with little more than an educator testing integrity.
Dupe! (Score:3)
Was already head on the 19th of September: [1]dupe [slashdot.org].
[1] https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/09/19/062210/fake-ai-intelligence-almost-made-the-us-military-start-a-war-with-china
Duh (Score:2)
When you put a drunken Fox News personality in charge of the military what do you expect? To compound this error you purge the ranks of anyone who disagrees. [1]https://thehill.com/policy/def... [thehill.com]
[2]https://archive.org/details/Ar... [archive.org] Fascism is government by the few and for the few. The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the state. Why? The democratic way of life interferes with their methods and desires for: (1) conducting business; (2) living with their fellow
[1] https://thehill.com/policy/defense/6124198-senate-reacts-pentagon-purge/
[2] https://archive.org/details/ArmyTalkOrientationFactSheet64-Fascism/mode/2up
again, don't blame the computer (Score:2)
The story runs, "Idiot Military Nearly Starts WWIII". Don't try to blame this on LLMs. How were they possibly relying on a single unreliable source for their response?
Re: (Score:3)
But, they weren't relying on it. The command structure checked and double-checked and determined their information was flawed. So the whole thing got called off, as it should have been. The system worked...why is this a story?
Oh yeah, "but we almost caused WWIII" or some click-bait nonsense. We did not, the idea that China would retaliate with Nukes even if we had confiscated said ship is nonsense, and didn't happen anyway.
Stop with the sensationalist B.S.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a Guardian story, what are you expecting?
Re: again, don't blame the computer (Score:1)
So a russian satellite sees the sun glinting off high altitude clouds over the US near a known missile silo and signals a missile launch alert. The duty officer says bullshit...no one starts ww3 with a single missile...must be a false alarm...and declines to push the big red button and start ww3 himself.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The unilateral disarmers spin this story as a reason to unilaterally disarm. The guys who totally don't have all their eggs in the defense stocks basket spin this as a reason
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident
No, Stupid Humans Nearly Sparked World War 3 (Score:2)
"Stupid humans relying on an Error-Prone AI Nearly Sparked World War Three"
FTFY
I think we need to be even more worried about a completely accurate AI deliberately sparking World War Three.
Bye bye, and thanks for all the comments (Score:1)
By this time next year we will all be wiped out by the nukes sent by a man with dementia and a political party who value obedience over self-preservation.
It was nice chatting with you all.
Headline response: Not really. (Score:2)
It's not AI/SI that caused the problem. It's the fact that our government officials are so god damned stupid that they think a technology that's still in a rough part of its early development is ready to make important decisions and that those decisions are infallible rather than something that needs to be verified by actual intelligent humans. Or they are no actual intelligent humans allowed to participate in the process that could verify the output of the machines. Either way, the real problem is human st
Garbage in, garbage out (Score:2)
> Garbage in, garbage out
> it is credited to George Fuechsel, an early IBM programmer, who introduced it in late 1950s.[4] For a wider public it was introduced a 1957 syndicated newspaper article about US Army mathematicians and their work with early computers,[5] in which an Army Specialist named William D. Mellin explained that computers cannot think for themselves, and that "sloppily programmed" inputs inevitably lead to incorrect outputs.
check story first? (Score:3)
As briefly indicated in TFS, this story has not been verified by any other outlet, and as explained by Prof. Spaniel [1]strongly smells of BS [youtu.be]. Before we draw general conclusions or write op eds it might be good to check if we are basing these on fiction.
[1] https://youtu.be/G0eegnia10s?si=ciUM2Z1EOaaZNOzS
Nope. (Score:2)
The gap between "mistakenly and with hostility boarded a vessel" and "started World War III" is so vast as to render the title fucking stupid. China would make hay over the incident, for sure. But they are not interested in being front and centre in a global conflict. It's not in their best interests, and they are a rational actor.
Re: wow another WW3 (Score:1)
omg never thought weâ(TM)d get another even-numbered war