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AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations
(www.newscientist.com)
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this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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The difference between the computer in War Games and modern LLMs is that the computer in War Games did extensive simulations before making a decision. You can see the sims on the big screen at the climax of the film, which is the computer repeatedly testing and confirming mutually assured destruction, and only when it is sure beyond all doubt that "the only winning move is not to play" does it give its verdict on global thermonuclear war.
LLMs just mash markov chains together, so there's a 50/50 shot that the sentence "I should" will end in "launch nukes" or "tell you about white genocide in South Africa".
Go outside
? I'm not sure what prompted this.
If you are unaware this is something that grok did for several days