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<\/p>\nThe disclosure emerged in a legal brief submitted by the US Department of Justice.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Grok In US-Iran War: Tech billioniare Elon Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok was used to launch thousands of missiles in Iran, the United States government revealed in a legal briefing in a court case involving Musk\u2019s AI company, xAI, as reported by news agency AFP.<\/p>\n
According to a legal brief submitted by the US Department of Justice as part of a lawsuit challenging the operation of gas-powered turbines at at an xAI data centre, the Trump administration argued that the facilities are critical to national security because they support artificial intelligence systems used by the US military.<\/p>\n
Pentagon\u2019s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, Cameron Stanley, stated in the filing that Grok is among a small number of AI models capable of supporting national security applications. According to the filing, Grok\u2019s government-focused model is being used within Project Maven, the US military\u2019s AI-assisted targeting programme.<\/p>\n
Stanley said Maven Smart Systems enabled US forces to deploy more than 2,000 munitions against 2,000 targets within a 96-hour period during Operation Epic Fury. Stanley praised Musk\u2019s technology and \u201cthe greatly increased operational efficiency made possible by the Grok Gov Model.”<\/p>\n
The project\u2019s Maven Smart Systems (MSS) \u201cenabled US forces to deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours during Operation Epic Fury,” Stanley\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n
The revelation is among the clearest acknowledgements yet that the Pentagon is using Musk\u2019s AI technology in operational military settings. The disclosure comes amid growing scrutiny of the military\u2019s use of artificial intelligence, particularly following reports that US-led strikes resulted in civilian casualties.<\/p>\n
The legal filing was made in response to a lawsuit by the NAACP, which alleges that xAI is operating dozens of gas-burning turbines without the permits required under the Clean Air Act. The Justice Department has argued that restricting xAI\u2019s operations could affect technologies considered important to US national security.<\/p>\n
In the brief, the DOJ furtherargued that the lawsuit \u201cthreatens American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War\u2019s military operations.”<\/p>\n
The case has also reignited debate over the expanding role of AI in warfare. Several lawmakers and experts have called for stricter safeguards to ensure that human commanders remain responsible for life-and-death decisions, even as AI tools become more deeply integrated into military planning and targeting systems.<\/p>\n
At the end of February, the government terminated its contracts with Anthropic after it refused to allow its tools to be used for fully automated strikes or the mass surveillance of Americans.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon then turned to Anthropic\u2019s competitors, like Google, OpenAI and xAI, to continue its pursuit of AI.<\/p>\n
At Google, more than 600 employees demanded the company not provide AI to the military for classified operations. Others have raised broad concerns about AI\u2019s threats.<\/p>\n
(With inputs from agencies)<\/p>\n
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About the Author Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degre…Read More<\/p>\n Location :<\/p>\n Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)<\/p>\n News<\/a> world<\/a> How Was Grok Used In Iran War? Pentagon Reveals About Mission That Hit 2,000 Targets In 96 HoursDisclaimer: Comments reflect users\u2019 views, not News18\u2019s. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Updated:June 17, 2026, 08:52 IST Stanley said Maven Smart Systems enabled US forces to deploy more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[41990,17302,6364,7856,41986,18718,41989,41988,41987,2899],"class_list":["post-76617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-xai","tag-ai-in-warfare","tag-elon-musk-xai","tag-grok","tag-grok-chatbot","tag-grok-ai-military-use","tag-national-security-ai","tag-pentagon-ai-systems","tag-project-maven-targeting","tag-us-iran-conflict-ai","tag-xai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Shobhit](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/whatsapp-image-2024-07-29-at-09.52.33-2024-07-7ec0e3d79845c4b5c8b9af7985c44bcd.jpeg\" "\\"Shobhit")
Shobhit Gupta<\/a><\/p>\n