2026-09-19T17:33:44.198Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/19/politics/democrats-letter-ai-investigation-military
一批资深民主党参议员呼吁政府监督机构调查美国军方由人工智能导致的一系列 targeting 计划失误，此前CNN的一篇报道披露，据一位知情人士透露，其中一次错误“险些引发战争”。
参议员们在周六致国防部长皮特·赫格斯西（Pete Hegseth）和国家情报总监杰伊·克莱顿（Jay Clayton）的信中，将CNN关于中东地区一艘中国船只险些酿成危机的报道作为近期事件的例证，称这些事件“让我们日益担忧，你所监督的机构在多大程度上优先加快人工智能能力的采用和‘试验’，而非有效治理”。
CNN周五报道称，一名特种作战司令部分析师依靠人工智能生成了一份情报报告，错误识别了一艘中国货船上的货物。
据消息人士透露，这份报告让美军误以为该船正在运输核武器计划相关部件。军方开始制定拦截该船的计划，直到行动实施前夕，官员们才意识到这份报告是在人工智能辅助下生成的，且“完全虚假”。
一位知情人士告诉CNN，自人工智能在政府中广泛应用以来，这类工具产生的“幻觉”错误在情报界并非孤立事件。
在信中，参议员马克·华纳（Mark Warner）、杰克·里德（Jack Reed）和克里斯·库恩斯（Chris Coons）呼吁“相关监察长立即展开调查，鉴于这些感知到的失误会影响公众对我们情报和作战任务的信心，最终调查结果应具备更高程度的公开透明度”。
这封信还提及了今年2月美军对伊朗米纳卜一所学校的致命空袭，造成近200名儿童和成年人死亡。今年早些时候，三位消息人士告诉CNN，此次空袭发生前，美军高级指挥官无视了包括一个人工智能驱动数据库在内的关键数据库中的警告，即有关伊朗潜在目标的情报严重过时。
参议员们在信中写道：“公开报道显示，人工智能靶向平台反复生成虚假输出（基于过时的输入数据或纯粹的幻觉），除了破坏美国公众和国际合作伙伴对美国情报以及基于情报的致命行动的准确性和可靠性的信心外，还可能导致严重的行动失误。”
参议员们在信中要求赫格斯西和克莱顿“迅速调查此事”，并向相关监察长“无限制地开放查阅今年媒体报道中提及的人工智能辅助靶向工作流程出现重大错误的两起案例，以及任何尚未公开报道的其他类似案例”。
这封信发出之际，围绕政府在实施人工智能防护措施方面的角色的辩论已成为国会山的主导议题。民主党议员加大了监管呼吁的力度，而包括总统唐纳德·特朗普和众议院议长迈克·约翰逊在内的共和党人则警告称，放缓发展步伐可能会让美国在与中国的人工智能竞赛中处于劣势。
在五角大楼，赫格斯西推动将人工智能广泛融入军事行动的举措并非没有障碍。国防部曾与Anthropic发生争执，原因是这家人工智能公司拒绝移除内部安全护栏，这些护栏将阻止军方将其Claude人工智能模型用于自主武器和大规模监控。Anthropic辩称，其模型尚未可靠到可用于此类用途。
更正：本文已更新，以明确致国防部长皮特·赫格斯西和国家情报总监杰伊·克莱顿的信是在周六发出的。
Democrats call for investigation into faulty AI-assisted intel report
2026-09-19T17:33:44.198Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/19/politics/democrats-letter-ai-investigation-military
A group of top Democratic senators is calling on government watchdogs to investigate a series of mistakes in US military targeting plans caused by artificial intelligence, after a CNN report detailed how one such error, according to a source familiar with the incident, “almost started a war.”
In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton sent on Saturday, the senators cite CNN’s reporting on a close call with a Chinese ship in the Middle East as an example of recent events that “have given us growing concern about the extent to which agencies under your oversight have prioritized acceleration of AI capability adoption and ‘experimentation’ over effective governance.”
CNN reported Friday that a special operations command analyst relied on AI to generate an intelligence report that inaccurately identified the material on a Chinese cargo ship.
The report led the US military to believe the ship was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program, according to sources. The military began facilitating plans to intercept the vessel before officials realized, only just before the planned operation, that the report had been generated with the help of AI and was “entirely false.”
The kind of “hallucination” that the tool conjured has not been an isolated incident across the intelligence community since the use of AI began proliferating across government, one source familiar with the episode told CNN.
In the letter, Sens. Mark Warner, Jack Reed and Chris Coons called for an “immediate investigation by relevant Inspectors General, with a higher degree of public transparency in the ultimate findings, given the impacts these perceived failures have on public confidence in our intelligence and warfighting missions.”
The letter also references a deadly February US strike on a school in Minab, Iran, that killed nearly 200 children and adults. Three sources told CNN earlier this year the strike came after senior US military commanders bypassed warnings in critical databases, including one powered by AI, that intelligence about potential targets in Iran was severely out of date.
“Public reports that AI targeting platforms have repeatedly generated spurious outputs (based on outdated input data or outright hallucination) risk serious operational error, in addition to undermining the confidence of both the American public and international partners in the accuracy and reliability of U.S. intelligence and intelligence-informed kinetic action,” the senators wrote.
The senators’ letter demands Hegseth and Clayton “promptly investigate this matter” and provide relevant inspectors general with “unrestricted access to both instances this year in which media reports have suggested significant errors in AI-enabled targeting workflows, as well as any additional instances that may have so far not been publicly reported.”
The letter comes as the debate over the government’s role in implementing AI safeguards has come to dominate the halls of Congress. Democratic members have intensified their calls for regulation, while Republicans, including President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, have warned that slowing development may cost the US in the AI race with China.
At the Pentagon, Hegseth’s push to broadly infuse AI into military operations has not come without roadblocks. The Defense Department has sparred with Anthropic over the AI company’s refusal to remove internal safety guardrails that would prevent the military from using its Claude AI model in autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. Anthropic argued its models were not reliable enough to be used for such purposes.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton was sent on Saturday.
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