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US Military had close call after using AI for hallucinated intelligence report

519 points · 396 comments · realsarm

  1. vegnus · · focus · HN ↗
    I hope I am alive for the history books of tomorrow.

    "The Department of War (as it became known as), forewent it's traditional intelligence structure (the most expensive ever seen till that point), in order to have a private companies computer software generate viable targets for an upcoming operation. Believing that the software had real time updates on the current status and intelligence of the operation, as if it were some kind of oracle, the operation went as planned. Six schools, mistakenly identified as hostile targets (due to the heavy American bias in the softwares training data), were drone striked, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of innocents. Still, the people did nothing."

    1. CodingJeebus · · focus · HN ↗
      I immediately thought about the Iran school bombings as well. The really insidious part of this to me is that AI gives the military a way to cover or deflect war crimes.

      Does a horrific war crime like My Lai[0] get scrutinized and investigated in 2026 or do people just say "eh maybe AI gave them bad intel" and ignore it?

      0: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;My_Lai_massacre" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;My_Lai_massacre

      1. watwut · · focus · HN ↗
        AI does not actually cover anything. Just because OpenAI and Antropic act like &quot;AI did it&quot; is get out of jail card does not mean it is.

        But USA wont prosecute own war crimes unless forced to, regardless of AI.

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