The Pentagon adopts the Grok chatbot, embroiled in global criticism

Washington. The Secretary of War of the United States, Pete Hegseth, stated that the chatbot Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence developer, Grok, will join Google’s generative AI service to operate within the Pentagon’s network, as part of a broader effort to feed as much military data as possible to the developing technology.

“Very soon we will have the world’s leading AI models across all of our department’s classified and unclassified networks,” Hegseth said Monday while giving a speech at the compound of Musk’s spaceflight company, SpaceX, in south Texas.

The announcement comes just days after Grok, who is integrated into X, the social network owned by Elon Musk, generated outrage and global scrutiny for creating highly sexualized fake images of people without their consent.

Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked Grok, while the UK’s independent online safety body announced an investigation. Grok has limited image generation and editing to paying users.

Hegseth indicated that Grok will be operating within the Department of Defense later this month and announced that he would make “all appropriate data” from military information technology systems available for “AI exploitation.” He also mentioned that data from intelligence databases would be fed into AI systems.

Hegseth’s aggressive effort to embrace the developing technology contrasts with the policy of the Joe Biden administration, which, while urging federal agencies to develop policies and uses for AI, also remained cautious about misuse. Officials said rules were needed to ensure the technology, which could be used for mass surveillance, cyberattacks or even lethal autonomous devices, was used responsibly.

The Biden administration enacted a protocol in late 2024 that directed national security agencies to expand their use of the most advanced AI systems but prohibited certain uses, such as applications that would violate constitutionally protected civil rights or any system that automated the deployment of nuclear weapons. It is unclear whether those bans remain in effect under Donald Trump’s administration.

During his speech, Hegseth spoke of the need to streamline and accelerate technological innovations within the military, saying that “we need innovation to come from anywhere and evolve quickly and purposefully.”

He noted that the Pentagon has “combat-tested operational data from two decades of military and intelligence operations.

“AI is only as good as the data it receives, and we will make sure it is available.”

The Secretary of Defense stated that he wants to hold AI systems within the Pentagon accountable, although he went on to say that he ruled out any AI model “that doesn’t allow you to fight wars.”

He expressed that his vision for military AI systems means that they operate “without ideological constraints that limit legal military applications,” before adding that “Pentagon AI will not be woke”, a term used by some conservatives for measures they consider “too” progressive.

Musk developed and introduced Grok as an alternative to what he called “AI woke” interactions. chatbots rivals such as Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In July, Grok also caused controversy after he appeared to make anti-Semitic comments praising Adolf Hitler and shared anti-Jewish posts.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions about the problems with Grok.