US AI error nearly triggered strike on Chinese ship in Middle East

An AI-generated intelligence report triggered a US military operation against a Chinese ship in the Middle East, with troops preparing to board and aircraft airborne before officials discovered the information was false. The incident occurred this spring during US-Iran tensions, originating from a Special Operations Command analyst who used a chatbot to interpret the ship's cargo manifest. The AI combined public and classified data, wrongly concluding the vessel carried components for a nuclear weapons program, leading to interception preparations. The error was caught just before the operation began, with one source calling the report "completely false" and saying the situation "almost started a war". The Pentagon is expanding AI use in 2026, but experts warn systems can produce "hallucinations" presenting false information credibly, and younger analysts may overtrust AI outputs, risking flawed decisions in target selection