For as long as AI has existed, humans have had fears around AI and nuclear weapons. And movies are a great example of those fears. Skynet from the Terminator franchise becomes sentient and fires nuclear missiles at America. WOPR from WarGames nearly starts a nuclear war because of a miscommunication. Kathryn Bigelow’s recent release, House of Dynamite, asks if AI is involved in a nuclear missile strike headed for Chicago.

AI is already in our nuclear enterprise, Vox’s Josh Keating tells Today, Explained co-host Noel King. “Computers have been part of this from the beginning,” he says. “Some of the first digital computers ever developed were used during the building of the atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project.” But we don’t know exactly where or how it’s involved.

So do we need to worry?

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