AI treated nuclear threats as a routine strategy in 95% of war games, according to new research

• A new study has found that AI models are fine threatening nuclear attacks in 95% of simulated war games
• The models treat nuclear threats as just another strategic tool
• The behavior may reflect the popularity of nuclear strategy in the war game training data

AI generals are big fans of nuclear weapons.

That's the conclusion of a new study of how AI models handle high-stakes geopolitical crises. GPT-5.2, Claude Sonnet 4, and Gemini 3 Flash turned to nuclear threats in about 95% of the simulated crises.

Researchers at King’s College London wanted to see how AI tools dealt with strategy in war-gaming scenarios. Each AI was assigned the role of a state leader responsible for protecting national interests while navigating a tense international confrontation.

Across 21 crisis games and hundreds of decision turns, the models reasoned about deterrence, escalation, and strategic signaling. The scenarios ...