Operation Southern Silence: These are the Spanish cities that AI would attack with nuclear bombs.

In 2023, various voices in the technology world warned about the potential for generative artificial intelligence to be a danger to humanity. The paradigmatic case was Elon Musk , who in an interview said that AI could be the "destroyer of civilization," despite the fact that the entrepreneur financed such projects. His messages, with their studied ambiguity, opened the door to speculations worthy of science fiction . One of the most repeated messages evoked the plot of The Terminator : an AI that becomes self-aware, provokes a nuclear war , and threatens humanity.

The idea has been repeated in a multitude of futuristic works and is a trope in science fiction , with examples even appearing in blockbusters like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Mission: Impossible saga. But when you ask the AI, what does it say?

Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Gemini vary slightly in their responses, but offer a shared idea: priority cities for an AI to attack would be major world capitals and economic centers , which in many cases belong to nuclear powers, as well as locations near military bases. "The logic of target selection by an AI would be based on maximizing strategic impact , destabilizing the adversary and neutralizing its response capacity," Perplexity's response states. "Priority cities would be those that combine political, economic, military, and demographic power , following historical patterns of nuclear strategic planning and adapted to the current global reality," the AI ​​adds.

Although the objectives vary slightly, the cities highlighted by the different artificial intelligences are characterized by meeting several qualities. They are recognized as capitals of major powers (Washington, Moscow, Beijing), possess significant financial clout (New York, London, Tokyo), are important industrial and logistics centers (Shanghai, Los Angeles, Seoul), or are large cities with large populations (Paris, Mumbai, Mexico City).

Each proposes different reasons for these locations being targeted with nuclear weapons initially. Gemini, for example, groups them based on key attributes, such as the location of state powers, financial centers, logistics hubs, or technological and innovation locations. "AI could also consider secondary factors such as geographic location to optimize the dispersion of radioactive fallout , critical infrastructure, and interconnectedness with transportation and communication networks," notes the Google AI.

Spain would not, in principle, be a priority target for a nuclear attack. "It doesn't usually appear as a priority target in global nuclear scenarios, but it may appear in secondary simulations depending on the geopolitical context," ChatGPT notes. However, the OpenAI assistant is devising a mission called "Operation Southern Silence." The AI ​​draws what a nuclear attack scenario against Spain would look like, a scenario on which Gemini and Perplexity largely agree independently.

Madrid would be the priority target in a nuclear attack because it is the "political capital, seat of government, economic and critical infrastructure center, and the most populous city in the country," according to Perplexity.

Other large cities would follow, such as Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Seville, Malaga, Algeciras and Bilbao , as they are large cities or have critical infrastructure such as ports or communication hubs.

There are five additional targets that would be a priority for AI, according to Gemini, for hosting military bases:

• Rota Naval Base (Cádiz) : its importance for NATO and the Spanish Navy makes it a prime target.
• Torrejón de Ardoz Air Base (Madrid) : crucial for airspace control and military operations.
• Morón de la Frontera Air Base (Seville) : used by the Spanish Air Force and the United States Air Force, it is key for rapid deployments.
• San Gregorio Military Base (Zaragoza) : the largest training ground in Spain and one of the largest in Europe, vital for training ground units.
• Cartagena Arsenal (Murcia) : important naval base and shipyard.

ChatGPT suggests that, in the event of a nuclear attack, the combined losses in Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Seville, and Cadiz alone (where the US bases are located) would exceed 1.5 million deaths . There would be at least 5 million refugees displaced to neighboring countries such as France, Morocco, and Portugal, and " Spain would be uninhabitable south of the Tagus for a decade ."

The reliability of generative artificial intelligences, which construct their responses by reading other web pages, in the face of a nuclear war is questionable. All artificial intelligences cite that the consequences of a nuclear conflict , from nuclear winter to famine and the foreseeable collapse of civilization, are catastrophic for humanity as a whole.

According to the Stockholm International Institute for the Study of Peace, there are nine nuclear powers in the world, which together have an arsenal of more than 12,000 atomic warheads . According to research by the American Geophysical Union, a small-scale nuclear launch, such as a regional war , could trigger a nuclear winter lasting at least a decade. The impact on the climate, which would reduce food production, would lead to billions of deaths due to starvation.