In recent years, analysts and scholars have noted that corruption or dysfunction in the global information ecosystem could have the effect of increasing nuclear risk. In these works, corruption and dysfunction are interpreted broadly to include mis- and dis- information but also other information-related phenomena such as provocative or intemperate content, true-but-misleading information, or attentional diversions.
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AI-generated disinformation gains outsized influence because it is tailored, scalable, and designed to exploit cognitive and institutional vulnerabilities in nuclear command and warning systems. … [S]ynthetic content shapes early assessments, crisis briefings, and political narratives, often with more impact than traditional intelligence. This disproportionate sway means that fake information purporting to reflect low-probability incidents can trigger high-consequence decisions, turning information manipulation into a direct driver of nuclear risk.
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Overall, AI’s impact extends far beyond any single piece of disinformation: AI‑generated deepfakes, synthetic intelligence feeds, fabricated eyewitness accounts, and manipulated satellite data do not just mislead; they systematically overload analytical capacity, compress decision timelines, and exploit cognitive biases in humans to reduce analytical thought processes and clear-headed decision-making. … [T]he information environment is flooded with plausible but false leads that analysts must treat as potentially meaningful.
