WASHINGTON: An AI intelligence error nearly triggered a U.S. military operation against a Chinese ship in the Middle East this spring before officials discovered the underlying report was false, CNN reported Friday.
The report claimed the vessel was carrying components linked to a nuclear weapons program. U.S. forces then prepared to intercept it, with military aircraft already airborne and armed personnel preparing to board, CNN said.
Officials reviewed the intelligence shortly before the planned operation. They found that a chatbot used by a military special operations analyst had incorrectly identified the ship’s cargo.
CNN said it could not determine what the vessel was actually carrying. One source familiar with the episode described the intelligence report as entirely false and said the incident “almost started a war.”
According to CNN, the analyst entered information about the cargo into an AI system that combined open-source material with classified intelligence. It remains unclear whether the analyst used a commercial chatbot or an internal government system.
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The analyst then used AI again to format the findings as a standard intelligence report before distributing it, CNN reported. More experienced analysts later examined the underlying material and identified the error.
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The incident emerged as the Pentagon accelerates military adoption of artificial intelligence. Its January 2026 AI strategy directs the department to become an “AI-first” force and expand experimentation across military operations.
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However, AI adoption remains decentralised, and verification standards vary across organisations. The Pentagon and U.S. Special Operations Command Pacific did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
