US military nearly boarded Chinese ship over false AI-generated intelligence report

The U.S. military nearly boarded a Chinese ship in the Middle East last spring after an intelligence report falsely claimed it carried nuclear weapons program components, sources told CNN. The operation was aborted when the report proved incorrect. The report was largely generated by AI, with an analyst using a chatbot that misidentified the ship's cargo from a manifest provided by US Special Operations Command Pacific. The analyst then used AI again to format the findings into a standard intelligence report, which was distributed to military officials Experts say the incident highlights risks of AI use in intelligence and military operations, including hallucination and lack of uniform standards across government agencies. Sources note AI is increasingly used for target selection, raising concerns about fatal errors, though the Pentagon has not commented on CNN's findings