OpenAI, Google and Anthropic AI Models Deployed Nuclear Weapons in 95% of War Simulations

Decrypt News Artificial Intelligence OpenAI, Google and Anthropic AI Models Deployed Nuclear Weapons in 95% of War Simulations As the Department of Defense pushes for greater AI integration, researchers said the top models chose the nuclear option in nearly all war simulations. By Jason Nelson Edited by Andrew Hayward Feb 25, 2026 Feb 25, 2026 4 min read Source: Decrypt Create an account to save your articles. Add on Google Add Decrypt as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. In brief The leading AI models deployed nuclear weapons in 95% of war-game scenarios. None chose full surrender, even when losing. Researchers warn AI use may escalate conflicts under pressure. Like a scene out of the 1980s sci-fi classic films “The Terminator” and “WarGames,” modern artificial intelligence models used in simulated war games escalated to nuclear weapons in nearly every scenario tested, according to new research from King’s College London. In the report published last week, researchers said that during simulated geopolitical crises, three leading large language models—OpenAI’s GPT-5.