The US military was on the verge of attacking a Chinese ship due to a mistake made by artificial intelligence. CNN reports that the incident occurred in the Middle East. The armed forces were ready to attack the Chinese ship, and fighter jets were even raised in the air, sources familiar with the case told the American media.
The US armed forces received a report from an intelligence officer in the spring. It said that a Chinese ship in the Middle East was transporting components for Iran's nuclear program. Immediately before the operation began, the military decided to check the report once again and found that it was generated with the help of artificial intelligence. They also found that the chatbot used by the analyst had given incorrect information about the cargo the ship was carrying.
"The report was completely false", says one of the sources to CNN, "but it almost started a war". If the US military had attacked a Chinese ship, this could have led to an armed conflict between the two countries.
How did the false report come about?
The intelligence officer asked the chatbot to find information from the ship's manifest about the cargo it was carrying - the information was supposed to be collected by the US Special Operations Command in the Pacific, which is based in Hawaii. CNN specifies that it is not clear whether the artificial intelligence model used in this case is publicly available or specially developed for the needs of the US military. The chatbot gathered information from open sources and from internal information of the US services, to which it had access, and reached its conclusion about the cargo of the Chinese ship. However, it turned out to be incorrect.
The analyst who prepared the report once again used artificial intelligence to summarize the information collected by the chatbot and write it as a standard intelligence report, such as the ones that the army usually uses.
The US military regularly uses artificial intelligence
CNN sources report that the United States armed forces are increasingly actively using artificial intelligence in their work, including for determining targets for attacks. Experts warn that this is especially dangerous.
A person familiar with the current policies of the US military for the use of artificial intelligence told the American media that there is a serious risk of civilian casualties or attacks on US troops if there is no person to approve the decisions of the artificial intelligence. A chatbot "hallucination" like the one that led to the Chinese ship incident is not an isolated incident in the use of artificial intelligence in intelligence work, another expert the media outlet spoke to reported.
Republican calls for the removal of the defense secretary
Earlier this week, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, a longtime critic of the Trump administration, introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegsett in the U.S. House of Representatives. According to the charges filed by Massie, Hegsett started the war in Iran illegally, ignored a congressional order to end the conflict, and caused unnecessary civilian casualties.
Before Congress could vote on Massie's proposal, however, House Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned it and declared that all congressmen should take a break from legislative activity until the midterm elections on November 3.
Criticism quickly spread that Johnson was trying to save Hegsett from impeachment, and the price was being paid by a Congress that was not working effectively enough. Since the beginning of its term in January 2025, the 119th US Congress has passed 108 major laws - and only 36 of them this year. At this point in the calendar, no Congress in modern American political history has passed fewer laws - except for the last one, which was also led by Johnson, writes the American news outlet MS NOW.
Trump is trying to kick CNN, MS NOW and "Politico" out of the White House
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump announced that he would ban CNN, MS NOW and "Politico" from working at the White House. The fact that this happened on the same day that CNN published information about the incident with the Chinese ship immediately led to speculation that this was a punitive action by the White House against the media.
"The media should not be able to constantly publish FAKES and LIES when covering the activities of the President of the United States, the Trump administration or the United States of America. "Other fake news outlets will follow," Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
Trump did not elaborate on why he wanted to block these media outlets from the White House right now. He again accused them of spreading "fake news" and said his decision was dictated by "a stack" of various reports from CNN, "Politico" and MS NOW.
Trump has tried to restrict journalists' access to the White House in the past. The "Associated Press" was banned from the Oval Office and Air Force One after the agency stopped referring to the Gulf of Mexico as "the Gulf of Mexico" in February of last year. The media outlet filed a lawsuit against the White House in the following days to restore its access, and a federal judge ruled in its favor in April.