Singapore — Defense leaders gathered here last week for the annual Shangri-La Dialogue. They came to talk strategic stability. They left with a new consensus. Artificial intelligence now ranks as a greater immediate risk than nuclear weapons. The shift stunned longtime observers. For decades this forum fixated on missile counts, no-first-use pledges and deterrence math. This time the conversation centered on speed. On algorithms that collapse decision windows. On humans pushed to act before they can think. Compressed Timelines Redefine Escalation Risks Lieutenant General Nauman Zakria laid it out plainly. The commander of 1 Corps and the Army Rocket Force Command in the Pakistan Army spoke of the classic OODA loop — observe, orient, decide, act. AI shrinks that loop so tightly a human can’t evaluate the situation fast enough. “People will act irrationally, and the actions will be extreme,” he said Saturday during the strategic stability panel, according to The Next Web . His warning carried weight.…