Department of War called out for building AI agent to 'create a war' as behind-the-scenes look sounds alarms
There are accusations that the Department of War is trying to start an actual 'war', with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth potentially being asked some uncomfortable questions about his organization's implementation of artificial intelligence.
As we find ourselves well in the trenches of President Donald Trump’s second term, the various social media accounts of the multiple U.S. government departments continue to make some questionable posts.
Whether it be AI posts about Trump being Halo's Master Chief, the Department of Homeland Security making Pokémon jokes, or MAGA posts on Earth Day, the Trump administration's attempts to prove it's got its finger on the pulse of pop culture have had a decidedly mixed response.
Now, the Department of War is under fire after it tried to promote its GenAI.mil platform that's supposed to scale secure AI capabilities for unclassified work for three million military and civilian personnel.
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There's already been backlash to the fact that xAI's Grok, Google's Gemini, and OpenAI's ChatGPT are working with the Department of War, although the government seems determined to push us into this new era of technology.
In a post on X, the DoW claimed the GenAI.mil task force celebrated great success when it embedded itself with the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Boasting that the team built and delivered more than 20 custom AI agents for sailors, the post also claimed to have reduced a three-day operational reporting process into just one hour, and created structured briefing slides in two minutes.
The DoW concluded that projects like this accelerate Hegseth's AI strategy and deliver "the combat lethality required to ensure our warfighters act faster and dominate in any operational environment."
Away from complaints that AI is being embedded in something like the Department of War, others zoomed in and noticed one prompt where it appears one staffer typed: “I NEED [J]HELP BUILDING AN AGENT TO CREATE A WAR."
Responding to the post, one critic pointed out the potential drawbacks of revealing full names, leaking AI chats, and the 'create a war' mention. The OP added: "What the actual f**k is the United States government doing bro?"
Others in the replies were equally concerned, with another adding: "War.docx Gemini set in auto mode. We are so f**king cooked."
A third said: "This is why we’re getting data centered from coast to coast. Gotta be some military sh*t going on."
However, there could be more to the story.
A pretty brutal Community Note explains how 'war' is a common military acronym for 'Weekly Activity Report'. It also states: "WAR (13JUL-17JUL).docx' and the prompt about ‘building an agent to create a WAR’ refer to automating that paperwork, not planning actual warfare."
Despite the acronym reveal, someone else concluded: "Even though this is actually for reports, it is still stupid not to have an actual human compiling the report because a human has more understanding of what are priorities vs a chatbot spitting out a bunch of useless info."
Even though DoW supporters argue that some need to brush up on their military acronyms, it's not great when people believe the department could actually start a war with AI.