OOF-AII-952674
Nuclear False Alarm
An alert of five incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles was properly identified as a false-positive by the Soviet Union operator Stanislov Petrov.
- Event date
- 1983-09-26
- Country
- Russia
- Severity
- Low
- Evidence state
- Single-source
Assessment status
Generated from available public incident evidence using OOF® governance methodology. It is not an official investigation, legal determination, regulatory finding, certification, or OOF® Approved Assessment.
View source record from AI Incident Database (Responsible AI Collaborative)
Assessment confidence dimensions
- Source corroboration
- Single-source
- Extraction completeness
- High
- Methodological assignment confidence
- Limited
Measures source-group corroboration only; it does not establish factual truth.
Measures populated source fields after deterministic normalization; it does not measure correctness.
Measures automated assignment support; substantive correctness requires authorized human review.
Known facts from the incident record
- The incident record identifies the event date as 1983-09-26.
- The incident record identifies the location as Russia.
Reported claims
- An alert of five incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles was properly identified as a false-positive by the Soviet Union operator Stanislov Petrov.
Material unknowns
- Independent corroboration is not established in the available incident record.
- The specific AI system is not established by the available record.
Primary governance problem
The incident appears to expose a governance problem involving identified, positive. Available reporting supports preliminary methodological interpretation, not a finding of fault or non-compliance.
Architecture intelligence
VFM® — Value Flow Mechanisms Architecture
Primary architecture
The reported identified, positive concern falls within the governed questions represented by VFM® — Value Flow Mechanisms Architecture.
Governance focus: How should identified, positive be governed in the conditions described by the available incident evidence?
Deeper methodology is withheld because the available evidence does not justify a Parent Standard or Core Module.
Preliminary governance questions
- How should identified, positive be governed in the conditions described by the available incident evidence?
- What operational authority and controls applied to Soviet Union at the relevant time?
- What evidence would establish how the relevant AI system produced or enabled the reported outcome?
- What additional independent evidence is required to resolve the material evidence gaps?
Evidence gaps and limitations
- Only one independent source group is represented; corroboration is not established.
- AI technology is not specified in the source record.
- AI system type is not specified in the source record.