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Exclusive: US military had close call after using AI for false intelligence report, sources say

  • On Friday, CNN reported that an AI chatbot's erroneous analysis of a Chinese vessel's manifest nearly triggered a shooting war between the United States and China this spring.
  • A Special Operations Command Pacific analyst prompted an AI chatbot to analyze a Chinese ship's manifest, and the bot "fused together open-source intelligence with secret signals intelligence" to wrongly conclude it was "hauling components" for a nuclear weapons program.
  • Armed military members prepared to board the vessel before officials realized the report was "entirely false," a source said, admitting the error "almost started a war."
  • Military leaders are rapidly integrating AI into targeting despite a lack of standards for preventing fatal "hallucination" errors, with one source noting there is no guidance on preventing civilian casualties or fratricide.
  • Critics argue the technology remains dangerously unready, with a top Army cyber general recently warning that AI deployment caused a "tenfold" spike in vulnerabilities across the Pentagon's networks, though officials maintain the United States must integrate AI to avoid falling behind China.
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The military planes managed to take off before the operation was canceled.

·Helsinki, Finland
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A dangerous incident that brought the United States and China to the brink of war reveals a CNN report. Last spring, while the crisis with Iran was ongoing, the US armed forces were alarmed when an intelligence report indicated that a Chinese ship in the Middle East was carrying components for nuclear weapons. The Pentagon's reaction was immediate, with warplanes scrambled and special forces preparing to raid the suspicious Chinese vessel. Ho…

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TMZ broke the news in Burbank, United States on Friday, September 18, 2026.
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