Military and national security

Gen. Anthony Cotton

Commander of U.S. Strategic Command

2 records

Portrait source: U.S. Strategic Command, Public domain

Records

So the WOPR actually was that AI machine that everyone is scared about. And guess what? We do not have, you know, a WOPR at STRATCOM headquarters, nor would we ever have a WOPR in STRATCOM headquarters. That’s not what I’m talking about.

Gen. Anthony Cotton

Commander of U.S. Strategic Command

Gen. Anthony Cotton said U.S. Strategic Command does not and never would have an AI machine like WOPR from the film WarGames.

Commander of U.S. Strategic CommandNovember 19, 2024Center for Strategic and International Studies

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Surrounding words

Anyone watched the movie “War Games”? Okay, right? First of all, Cheyenne Mountain doesn’t look like that, because I was there working for General Kehler. But you know, in “War Games,” it has this machine called the WOPR. So the WOPR actually was that AI machine that everyone is scared about. And guess what? We do not have, you know, a WOPR at STRATCOM headquarters, nor would we ever have a WOPR in STRATCOM headquarters. That’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is how do I get and become efficient on ISR products, you know? How do I get, you know, efficient on understanding what’s the status of my forces?

What this quote does not say

In the same answer, Cotton said AI and machine learning could help process intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance products and force-status information, while saying machines would not present forces to the president.

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Yeah. So I’ll start with the bottom line up front. The bottom line up front, because, you know, when I spoke, even, you know, last month that, you know, got some feedback and like, oh my god, I think I read one where, you know, Cotton, you know, just wants AI to make the decision nuclear – that’s absolutely not what I said, but that’s how it was interpreted, somehow.

Gen. Anthony Cotton

Commander of U.S. Strategic Command

At a 2024 CSIS event, Gen. Anthony Cotton said earlier remarks had been misinterpreted as support for letting AI make nuclear decisions.

Commander of U.S. Strategic CommandNovember 19, 2024Center for Strategic and International Studies

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Context and checks

Surrounding words

And it was a similar question from Professor Larafi as well. Gen. Cotton: Yeah. So I’ll start with the bottom line up front. The bottom line up front, because, you know, when I spoke, even, you know, last month that, you know, got some feedback and like, oh my god, I think I read one where, you know, Cotton, you know, just wants AI to make the decision nuclear – that’s absolutely not what I said, but that’s how it was interpreted, somehow. But here’s what I really mean. If we think that United States Strategic Command can’t take advantage of artificial intelligence to preserve the terabytes of data that would otherwise hit the floor and still do things the old fashioned way

What this quote does not say

Cotton went on to support using AI for data processing, planning, intelligence and force-status work, while rejecting having a machine present forces to the president.

How this was checked

Quote matched character-for-character against the captured page.

Reviewed by

an AI reviewer that read the whole source · an automatic character-by-character check