Could China devastate the US without firing a shot?

Forget LLM's. We already saw what they can do without firing a shot. They navigated a large stratospheric balloon over many military installations in the USA without it being shot down until it reached the east coast. That was obviously a discovery and practice run. Those balloons can carry thousands of pounds of payload. China have an entire military division dedicated to balloons and they are growing.

All they would need are two, maybe three of those balloons detonating high altitude nukes to knock out the power of an entire continent. Power grids are much more fragile than most would believe. Performed during the winter many would freeze as people have become dependent on electricity and fuel for heat. Fuel and sewage require electricity to pump in cities. The massive substation transformers that would need to be replaced are not kept in stock locally and are produced in ... China. There are documentaries that show why these transformers can not even be replaced in some cities due to the roads no longer facilitating the large earth moving equipment that is required to move them. I would wager most have never even seen one of them moved in their lifetime.

AI is a bullshit bandwagon. It has a benefit that no real-world events can derail it because it lives entirely in the world of fantasies of spin doctors and evangelists.