The US military employed Elon Musk's artificial intelligence tool Grok to assist in planning and executing strikes against Iran, the Pentagon disclosed in a legal filing. This marks the first official confirmation of xAI's technology being utilized in lethal military operations.
Pentagon Official's Statement
Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon's chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, stated in a sworn declaration that Grok was deployed as part of Project Maven's Smart Systems. This enabled US forces to "deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours" during Operation Epic Fury against Iran.
Legal Filing Reveals Details
The revelation emerged in a Justice Department brief defending xAI's data center operations in Mississippi, which the NAACP is suing over environmental violations. The government argued that shutting down the data center would threaten "American national, economic, and energy security."
Replacement of Anthropic's Claude
The Pentagon turned to xAI and other competitors after terminating its contract with Anthropic in February. Anthropic had refused to permit its AI tools for fully automated strikes or mass surveillance of Americans.
Stanley praised Musk's technology and "the greatly increased operational efficiency made possible by the Grok Gov Model." Grok is now among a small set of models the Pentagon described as "currently capable of supporting national security applications" in top-secret settings.
Employee and Public Concerns
At Google, over 600 employees demanded the company not supply AI to the military for classified operations. Others have raised broad concerns about AI's threats.
Civilian Casualties Reported
Yahoo News reported that US military investigators believe American forces using AI-driven targeting were likely responsible for a strike on a girls' school in Minab that killed at least 175 people, mostly children. This disclosure raises significant questions about the use of commercial AI models in lethal military operations, with critics and civil rights groups expressing concern over accountability, civilian harm, and the outsourcing of targeting decisions to generative AI.
AI-First Warfighting Force
The Department of War has launched a transformative Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Strategy to establish the United States as "the world's undisputed AI-enabled fighting force." The strategy includes seven "Pace-Setting Projects," providing Department-wide access to frontier generative AI models like Google's Gemini and xAI's Grok for all DoW personnel.
