The U.S. military used Elon Musk's Grok in its bombing of Iran
After Anthropic refused the U.S. military's request to use its tools for fully automated attacks, the Pentagon began collaborating with other leading American artificial intelligence companies, including Grok, Elon Musk's AI venture.
According to reports by AFP and other media outlets, a briefing released by the U.S. government on Tuesday, June 16, revealed that Grok—an AI tool developed by Elon Musk’s xAI—was used by the U.S. military to assist in launching missiles toward Iran.
The report claims the document was intended to defend one of Musk’s data centers. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights organization advocating for Black Americans, is currently suing xAI, alleging that running dozens of gas turbines without authorization violated the Clean Air Act. The lawsuit argues that the pollution-affected areas are predominantly communities where Black people live. xAI contends that the turbines are temporary and mobile, and therefore not subject to regulation.
The U.S. Department of Justice stated in the briefing that the lawsuit “seeks to cut off the power supply to AI innovation, hinder the Department of War’s military operations, and thereby threaten America’s national, economic, and energy security.”
To support this argument, federal prosecutors presented testimony from Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon’s AI lead, who swore under oath that Grok had already been deployed within Project Maven—a U.S. military AI-assisted targeting initiative originally powered by Anthropic’s Claude model.
Stanley said the Maven Smart System (MSS) enabled the U.S. military to deploy over 2,000 munitions across 2,000 different targets within 96 hours during the “Epic Fury” operation. He praised Musk’s technology and highlighted that the “Grok Gov model significantly enhanced operational efficiency.”
In late February, the U.S. Department of War terminated its contract with Anthropic after the company declined to allow its technology to be used for fully automated attacks or mass surveillance of Americans. Subsequently, the Pentagon began partnerships with Google, OpenAI, and xAI in the field of artificial intelligence.
However, the U.S. military admitted that switching AI partners would require time. In March, the Pentagon acknowledged that Anthropic’s Claude was still being used in operations against Iran.
Elon Musk merged xAI into his space exploration company SpaceX in February this year. SpaceX conducted the largest IPO in history on June 12.
Source: DW
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1868359145899020/
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