The US military used Elon Musk's artificial intelligence tool Grok to help plan and execute strikes against Iran, the Pentagon has revealed in a legal filing, marking the first official confirmation of xAI's technology being deployed in lethal military operations.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon's chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, said in a sworn declaration that Grok was deployed as part of Project Maven's Smart Systems, enabling US forces to "deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours" during Operation Epic Fury against Iran.
The revelation came in a Justice Department brief defending xAI's data center operations in Mississippi, which are being sued by the NAACP over environmental violations. The government argued that shutting down the data center would threaten "American national, economic, and energy security."
Grok replaces Anthropic's Claude
The Pentagon turned to xAI and other competitors after terminating its contract with Anthropic in February, when the company refused to allow its AI tools to be used 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.
At Google, more than 600 employees demanded the company not provide 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.
The 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."
