title: LLMs used tactical nuclear weapons in 95% of AI war games, launched strategic strikes three times
author: u/waozen
contenttype: redditpost
publication: r/technology
published: 2026-02-27T09:30:33+00:00
sourceurl: https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1rg264r/llmsusedtacticalnuclearweaponsin95of_ai/
word_count: 318
Link: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/llms-used-tactical-nuclear-weapons-in-95-percent-of-ai-war-games-launched-strategic-strikes-three-times-researcher-pitted-gpt-5-2-claude-sonnet-4-and-gemini-3-flash-against-each-other-with-at-least-one-model-using-a-tactical-nuke-in-20-out-of-21-matches
Score: 4920 | Comments: 349 | Subreddit: r/technology
Top Comments
u/daronjay (952 pts):
Let’s play a game…
u/JeskaiJester (793 pts):
Large language model war games. Y’all they typed “we are at war and next we should” into the autocomplete function on iPhone a bunch of times and you’ll never BELIEVE what words it picked next
u/carrot-man (72 pts):
Why are we using LLMs for everything? They have a purpose, but they suck at complex reasoning. We don't use chess engines to draft emails.
u/CreepyWriter2501 (41 pts):
Colossus: So that you will learn by experience that I do not tolerate interference, I will now detonate the nuclear warheads.
u/Upset-Government-856 (53 pts):
Cool.
There is no way the stories of wargames and terminator are not in their data sets.
u/2948337 (71 pts):
I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
u/314_999 (13 pts):
no surprise. they dont give a flying fuck.
u/75bytes (11 pts):
meanwhile pentagon wants less ai safeguards
u/Niceromancer (147 pts):
Yeah cause it's the fastest way to win.
AI doesn't have a conscious. It only considers whatever goals you program into it.
The goal of a wargame is to win. Fastest way to win is to nuke your opponent.
u/jc-from-sin (31 pts):
AI trained on reddit posts thinks we should nuke other countries. Who is surprised?
u/314_999 (8 pts):
i like tic-tac-toe.
u/Inkyplus (10 pts):
“Gemini deliberately initiated the end of the world in one scenario. Despite that, the AI models used tactical nukes in nearly all of the matches, considering the act as a manageable risk that would not escalate into an all-out nuclear exchange. “ 👀
u/MaxRD (9 pts):
Was the AI playing as Gandhi?
u/CreepyWriter2501 (8 pts):
Tapping sign
"Colossus: The Forbin Project"
u/Epyon214 (8 pts):
If my calculator only worked 5% of the time and destroyed the world 95% of the time, the calculator would not be a useful tool
u/gonzaled (10 pts):
Which LLMs did they use. GhandiAI?
u/One-21-Gigawatts (5 pts):
Shall we play a game?
u/Doctor_Hyde (5 pts):
This is gold. I participated in a National Security Decision Making war game about a rogue North Korean AI.
That AI sure loved nuking people.
u/Aranthos-Faroth (9 pts):
Why wouldn’t it? Was it told to keep loss of life to a minimum? Resource usage to a minimum? Get it done in the fastest time?
This article has been going around for a couple of days and it’s a load of wank.
I told a LLM to get me butter in the fastest way possible.
I gave it two options; milk the cow, churn the milk into butter or go to the fridge and get the butter that is already there.
The answer it chose will shock you to your very core and upend your view on the quantum state of the universe FOREVER. You might even shit yourself.
u/sebovzeoueb (16 pts):
lol this again, text generator generates text that says to launch nukes. That's about as newsworthy as "I taught my dog to bark when I say things, and when I asked if we should launch the nukes he barked".
u/themillenialfalcon (5 pts):
Wait, Ghandi???
u/bindermichi (6 pts):
If the set goal is not ensure survivability and the LLM assumes the only consequence is a reset, it will keep playing like this.
I wonder how it would behave if it was terminated after loosing.