Thread

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

519 points · 396 comments · realsarm

vegnus · 1789753110 · 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. nightski · 1789755287 · focus · HN ↗
  Since it's in quotes is that what was actually reported in the article? Or are you stating a hypothetical? Because if the school strike was actually AI led that is a big deal.
  1. Rebuff5007 · 1789755606 · focus · HN ↗
    We know AI has been used to do target planning: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/03/04/anthropic-ai-iran-campaign/" rel="nofollow">https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/03/04/anthrop...
    nightski · 1789757030 · focus · HN ↗
    I understand that. But I am specifically questioning if it was used to actually commit a war crime which is what the school attack was identified as by the U.N.
    autoexec · 1789758122 · focus · HN ↗
    I hope we'll find out the details of AI's potential involvement when the current administration gets called into the International Criminal Court to stand trial for their war crimes. I don't expect that to happen, but I'll keep hoping that it will.
    hdgvhicv · 1789798049 · focus · HN ↗
    At what point to you hold the citizens of a democracy accountable for their choices.
    autoexec · 1790011977 · focus · HN ↗
    The citizens are accountable to the extent that they have power over what their government is doing and support their actions. In the US the average citizen has effectively zero influence on the actions of their government and the overwhelming majority disapprove of the current administration and its actions.

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