AI-Generated Intelligence Error Nearly Led US Army to Board Chinese Ship

An AI-assisted intelligence report nearly prompted the US Army to board a Chinese ship after a chatbot incorrectly identified its cargo as nuclear material, according to reporting by CNN cited by TechRadar. The material the system misidentified has not been publicly disclosed.

Sources told CNN that armed personnel were preparing to board the vessel while military aircraft supported the preparations. Officials reviewed the underlying information shortly before the planned operation and found that the cargo identification was wrong. One source described the assessment as “entirely false”; another told CNN it “almost started a war.”

The incident began when an analyst used a chatbot to interpret information about the ship’s manifest. Sources said the system combined publicly available material with classified signals information. The analyst then used AI again to put the findings into a standard intelligence format, which was circulated among military officials. It is unclear whether the analyst knew of the incorrect interpretation before the report circulated, or what verification procedures were applied.

The Pentagon and the military command responsible for Pacific special operations did not comment, according to the report. The episode comes as the US military expands its use of AI. In January, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a strategy to accelerate AI deployment across military missions and organizational functions. The department later said more than 1.3 million personnel had used GenAI.mil, generating tens of millions of prompts within five months.

CNN reported that military organizations use different AI systems and have varying practices for checking their outputs. The source report says the error entered a process used for consequential military decisions, but does not identify a single verification process governing all AI-assisted intelligence products.