Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence tool Grok was used in strikes against Iran, the United States government revealed in a legal briefing seen Tuesday by AFP.
The June 15 brief defends the gas turbines used by a large data centre belonging to Musk’s company xAI. The turbines are currently the target of an environmental lawsuit.
In the brief, the US Department of Justice argued that the lawsuit threatens American national, economic, and energy security.
It said the case seeks to shut off the power supply for artificial intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War’s military operations.
To support the argument, federal prosecutors presented testimony from Pentagon AI chief Cameron Stanley.
Stanley said under oath that Grok is already being used in Project Maven. Project Maven is the US military’s AI-assisted targeting programme. It was initially powered by Anthropic’s Claude model.
Stanley said the project’s Maven Smart Systems enabled US forces to deploy more than 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours during Operation Epic Fury.
He also praised Musk’s technology and cited the increased operational efficiency made possible by the Grok Gov Model.
The NAACP, a civil rights organisation defending Black Americans’ rights, is suing xAI. The group accuses xAI of operating dozens of turbines without permits in violation of the Clean Air Act.
The NAACP says the turbines pollute the majority-Black neighborhoods. xAI says the turbines are temporary and mobile and are therefore not subject to regulation.
At the end of February, the government terminated its contracts with Anthropic. The move came after Anthropic refused to allow its tools to be used for fully automated strikes or the mass surveillance of Americans.
The Pentagon then turned to Anthropic’s competitors, including Google, OpenAI and xAI, as it continued its pursuit of AI tools.
At Google, more than 600 employees demanded that the company not provide AI to the military for classified operations.
Others have also raised wider concerns about the risks posed by AI. The US military’s transition to AI has taken time.
In March, the government had to acknowledge that Claude was still being used in the war in Iran.
Musk is a close ally of President Donald Trump. In February, he folded xAI into his space exploration company SpaceX. SpaceX carried out the largest IPO in history on June 12.
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