What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future · Slate Podcasts

If You Give A.I. a Nuke

November 30, 2025·25 min·2 clips

In 1979, a defective computer chip nearly triggered nuclear war when it falsely reported 220 Soviet missiles.

This episode explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons systems, examining historical near-misses, current integration efforts, and future risks. Host Lizzie O'Leary interviews Josh Keating about how AI is being used for tasks like predictive maintenance and target analysis, while experts warn that automation could escalate conflicts and blur human decision-making in catastrophic ways.

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