Elon Musk’s Grok AI tool was used in US strikes against Iran. The United States government said this in a June 15 legal briefing reported by AFP on Tuesday.
The US Department of Justice made the disclosure while defending the use of gas turbines at a large xAI data centre. The turbines face an environmental lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks to restrict the site’s power supply.
Federal prosecutors said the lawsuit threatened American national, economic and energy security. This was because the facility supported AI innovation linked to the Department of War’s military operations.
The filing cited sworn testimony from Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon’s AI chief. Stanley said Grok was already being used inside Project Maven, the US military’s AI-assisted targeting programme.
Stanley said Maven Smart Systems enabled US forces to deploy more than 2,000 munitions against 2,000 distinct targets. This happened within 96 hours during Operation Epic Fury.
He also credited the “Grok Gov Model” with improving operational efficiency, according to the statement cited in the filing.
The NAACP sued xAI under the Clean Air Act, alleging that the company operated dozens of gas turbines without permits. The civil rights group said the turbines polluted the majority-Black neighbourhoods.
xAI said the turbines were temporary and mobile, arguing they were not subject to the regulation cited in the lawsuit.
Read: Grok AI Chatbot US Market Share Rises Despite Controversy
The filing said the Pentagon turned to competitors of Anthropic, including Google, OpenAI and xAI. This happened after the government ended Anthropic’s contracts in February. Anthropic had refused to allow its tools to be used for fully automated strikes or mass surveillance of Americans.
Google employees have also raised objections to military AI work. More than 600 workers asked the company not to provide AI for classified military operations.
