Pentagon AI Chief: Grok Helped Bomb Thousands of Targets

Source Domain: www.newser.com

The Pentagon is leaning on Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence to make its case in court—and revealing a lot in the process. In a sworn filing, the Defense Department’s top AI official said xAI’s Grok chatbot was used to help fire more than 2,000 munitions at 2,000 targets in Iran over four days, and called the system’s continued operation “a matter of paramount national security,” the Independent reports.

Grok, via a special “Grok Gov” model, is one of a handful of AI tools the Pentagon says can support sensitive and “mission-critical” work, including in top-secret environments. In the filing, Cameron Stanley said the strikes were “a testament to the greatly increased operational efficiency made possible by the Grok Gov Model,” per the Hill.

The disclosure comes as the administration asks a federal judge to dismiss an NAACP lawsuit claiming xAI’s data centers are running dozens of unpermitted gas turbines that pollute nearby Black communities in Mississippi and Tennessee. The Pentagon argues those facilities are vital national-security infrastructure, able to provide emergency power and preserve a technological edge.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, are pushing to rein in…

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