The Guardian · 人工智能, TransformerThe Guardian · 人工智能 · 2 sources · 2 reports · AI misjudged intelligence and nearly triggered a U.S.-China conflict
CNN reported on September 18 that during a war with Iran, the U.S. military prepared to board a Chinese cargo ship in the Middle East suspected of carrying nuclear components, based on completely erroneous intelligence derived from AI by analysts. Warplanes had already taken off, and the error was only discovered just before interception; some said the incident nearly triggered a war between two nuclear powers. Timnit Gebru and Emily M. Bender pointed out that such large language models are essentially "stochastic parrots," whose risks were already documented in a 2021 paper, and that the real danger comes from people mistakenly believing they possess superintelligence. Transformer published an article arguing that keeping humans in the decision loop does not eliminate the risk of AI involvement in military decision-making; the hidden danger lies in human operators who over-rely on AI. Jacquelyn Schneider of Stanford University's Hoover Institution said AI makes analysts more prone to over-trusting assessment results.