US-initiated nuclear war is more likely after AI integration

Some branches of the U.S. military are hitting the brakes on generative AI after decades of Department of Defense experiments with broader AI technology.¶ Why it matters: As businesses race to put generative AI in front of customers everywhere, military experts say its strengths and limitations need further testing and evaluation in order to deploy it responsibly.¶ Driving the news: In a new essay in Foreign Affairs, Jacquelyn Schneider, the Hoover Institution's director of the wargaming and crisis simulation initiative, and AI researcher Max Lamparth write that large language models have a potentially dangerous tendency to go nuclear.¶ When they tested LLMs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta in situations like simulated war games, the pair found the AIs suggested escalation, arms races, conflict — and even use of nuclear weapons — over alternatives.¶ "It is practically impossible for an LLM to be taught solely on vetted high-quality data," Schneider and Lamparth write.