U.S. Pentagon deploys Elon Musk's Grok AI in Iran strike operation

The United States Department of Justice disclosed that the Pentagon integrated Elon Musk’s xAI chatbot Grok into its Project Maven targeting system for attacks against Iran. Pentagon AI chief Cameron Stanley testified under oath that the “Grok Gov Model” enabled U.S. forces to fire more than 2,000 munitions at 2,000 distinct targets within a 96‑hour period, describing it as “a very large increase in operational efficiency.”

The admission appears in a legal brief defending a massive xAI data centre’s gas‑turbine power supply, which the government argues is essential to national, economic and energy security. The brief also references a civil‑rights lawsuit filed by the NAACP alleging that the turbines, located near Memphis, pollute predominantly Black neighbourhoods and operate without required permits. Following the termination of contracts with Anthropic, the Pentagon turned to AI providers including Google, OpenAI and xAI for its military AI needs.