A Department of Defense official told Newsweek that the prompt referred to a “Weekly Action Report” (WAR), a standard document used throughout the department to summarize weekly accomplishments.
And if you look at the screenshot, sure enough, right above it there’s a Word doc named WAR (10JUL - 17JUL).docx. So yeah that’s exactly what this was. Fuck you, Newsweek.
Department of Weekly Action Reports?
Much as I’d love to dunk on both AI and the US military at the same time, this is an intentionally misleading article title.
For one, it omits the fact that there’s more text in the prompt after “CREATE A WAR”. It’s illegible, but looks like it could be “REPORT” or even “STRATEGY”.
For two, the department’s explanation is that “WAR” in this context stands for “Weekly Action Report”, which A) is consistent with the fact that the US Military LOVES its acronyms, B) lines up very nicely with the illegible word possibly being “REPORT”, and C) is exactly the kind of thing that LLMs are ostensibly for.
What’s happening is completely crazy.
It’s a Weekly Action Report. Perfectly normal
And here I am, using AI to spread the good. With thought and careful application. Well fuck me, let’s just bomb some people with it instead. I don’t blame the tool, I blame the warmongers who use it.
This headline should concern more people
No, it shouldn’t. AI being used to make a Weekly Action Report is actually a good use case
This slop journalism is a problem though. Entire article is bullshit
