Could AI Start Nuclear War? By James Rickards

AI can’t replace human judgement, and it will be a disaster when it is tried. From James Rickards at dailyreckoning.com:

I’ve covered a wide variety of potential crises over the years. These include natural disasters, pandemics, social unrest and financial collapse. That’s a daunting list.

One thing I haven’t done is to cover the greatest potential calamity of all — nuclear war. For the reasons explained below, now is the time to consider it.

Nuclear warfighting is back in the air. The subject is receiving more attention today than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and its aftermath. There are three reasons for this.

The first is American accusations that Russia would escalate to use nuclear weapons as it grew more desperate in its conduct of the war in Ukraine. These accusations were always false and are risible now that Russia is clearly winning the war with conventional arms.

Still, the threats and counter-threats were enough to put the topic in play.

The second reason is the war between Israel and Hamas. Again, escalation is the concern. One not implausible scenario has Hezbollah in southern Lebanon opening a second front on Israel’s northern border with intensive missile bombardment.

Houthi rebels in Yemen would join the attack. Since Hezbollah and the Houthis are both Shia Muslims and Iranian proxies, Israel could attack Iran as the source of the escalation.

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