Handing over nuclear weapons to artificial intelligence could be one of the biggest mistakes humanity ever makes. That’s the main warning from the 2025 yearbook released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), one of the top global research groups that tracks conflicts and weapons.
The group says giving AI the power to make launch decisions could lead to a nightmare scenario.
“If the decision to launch nuclear weapons is ever fully handed over to AI, we’d be approaching true doomsday scenarios,” said SIPRI Director Dan Smith in the report’s introduction.
World Heading Towards Another Arms Race
According to the yearbook, things are getting more dangerous globally. Most of the nine nuclear-armed countries—the US, Russia, China, the UK, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel—aren’t just keeping their weapons. They’re upgrading them.
“We see the warning signs of a new nuclear arms race at a particularly dangerous and unstable moment for geopolitics,” Smith said, pointing to rising global tensions and the failure of countries to agree on arms control.
Over 12,000 Nukes Still Exist Worldwide
Despite years of talks about reducing nuclear weapons, there are still a lot of them out there. SIPRI estimates there were about 12,241 nuclear warheads in the world at the start of 2025. Out of those, around 9,614 are ready for military use, and 3,912 are already deployed—meaning they’re on missiles or planes, ready to go.
Even worse, about 2,100 of those deployed warheads are on high alert, ready to launch in minutes. Most of these belong to the US and Russia. But now, China might also be keeping some of its warheads ready even during peacetime, SIPRI said.
China’s Nukes Growing Fast
China’s nuclear weapons programme is growing faster than anyone else’s. SIPRI says China now has at least 600 warheads, and it’s been adding around 100 every year since 2023.
By January 2025, China had finished building—or nearly finished—around 350 new missile silos in the north and east of the country. That’s a massive jump and shows how serious China is about boosting its nuclear power.
Pakistan and North Korea Pushing Ahead Too
Pakistan is also continuing to work on new delivery systems and stockpile more nuclear material. SIPRI says that based on current trends, its nuclear arsenal could get even bigger in the next ten years.
Meanwhile, North Korea is going full steam ahead with its nuclear programme. SIPRI estimates the country has about 50 warheads right now and enough material to build 40 more. It’s also speeding up how fast it can make that material.
The Real Fear: AI Running the Show
While the growing number of warheads is a serious issue, SIPRI is especially worried about the increasing use of artificial intelligence in managing nuclear weapons. The group warns that giving AI too much control over launch decisions could lead to a massive disaster.
AI systems don’t think the way humans do. They can make mistakes, get hacked, or misread signals—things that could trigger a nuclear strike by accident. And once that happens, there’s no undoing it.
“If the decision to launch nuclear weapons is ever fully handed over to AI, we’d be approaching true doomsday scenarios,” Smith repeated in the report.
SIPRI’s 2025 report is a wake-up call. While countries are spending money upgrading nukes and racing to stay ahead, the risk of something going horribly wrong is growing too—especially with AI getting involved.
Also Read: Operation Rising Lion: Which Iranian Nuclear Sites Did Israel Target And Why?
