In a sworn statement<\/a> defending the trillionaire from a lawsuit alleging xAI data centers are illegally polluting Black communities<\/a>, the Pentagon\u2019s artificial intelligence chief said the chatbot\u2019s continued operation is \u201ca matter of paramount national security\u201d \u2014 and was used to fire more than \u201c2,000 munitions at 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n Grok, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by xAI, is among four AI models \u201ccurrently capable of supporting national security applications,\u201d according to Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon\u2019s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer.<\/p>\n The chatbot is also one of three products \u201cequipped to support mission-critical operations\u201d in top secret settings, Stanley wrote.<\/p>\n The filing appears to be the first explicit admission from an administration official that the government is using Musk\u2019s AI to bomb Iran, joining several other AI systems that have come under intense scrutiny<\/a> after U.S.-led attacks killed hundreds of civilians, including children.<\/p>\n U.S. military investigators believe American forces were likely responsible<\/a> for a strike on an Iranian girl\u2019s school in Minab that killed at least 175 people, mostly children, in what analysts and human rights officials believe is the deadliest incident for civilian casualties since the U.S. and Israeli forces began attacking the country in February.<\/p>\n Outside analysts have suggested that the Pentagon\u2019s AI-driven targeting<\/a> \u2014 in addition to human error that failed to check whether target maps were up to date \u2014 may have played a role in the bombing.<\/a><\/p>\n The targets for Operation Epic Fury were identified with the aid of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency\u2019s Maven Smart System, which uses AI to lay out data on a dashboard to support officials in their decision-making.<\/p>\n Those AI products do not explicitly create targets but work within Maven to identify potential points of interest for military intelligence.<\/a><\/p>\n In court filings on Monday, the Pentagon said it relies on xAI\u2019s Grok Gov Model, a suite of products designed to work with federal agencies with features \u201cfound in no other frontier AI model,\u201d according to Stanley.<\/p>\n The Pentagon would be \u201cseverely\u201d impacted by a court ruling that prevents xAI from being \u201cdeployed, refined and upgraded\u201d across the Pentagon, according to the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n The Trump administration is asking a federal judge in Mississippi to toss out a lawsuit brought by the NAACP, which claims Musk\u2019s xAI is violating the Clean Air Act by running dozens of gas-burning turbines despite lacking permits for them.<\/p>\n The NAACP alleges that xAI operates at least 57 turbines being used to power its Colossus 2 data center without pollution controls required by the Clean Air Act.<\/p>\n That data center and others are \u201cwell positioned\u201d to provide a \u201ccritical surge\u201d in energy capacity in the event of an \u201carmed conflict or other exigent circumstances\u201d impacting national security, according to Stanley.<\/p>\n Data centers powering AI products used by the federal government are a \u201clong-term strategic tool vital to maintaining our technological advantage against adversaries,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n![\"xAI\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-06-09T204437Z_35805980_RC2PVCAMQKSA_RTRMADP_3_USA-AI-DATACENTER-LAWSUIT.JPG\")
xAI\u2019s Grok chatbot has been used to fire more than 2,000 munitions in Iran, according to a top Pentagon official (Reuters)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-05-22T121328Z_1036374491_RC2ODLACSRUB_RTRMADP_3_IRAN-CRISIS.JPG\")
The Pentagon\u2019s use of AI has come under intense scrutiny after members of Congress and outside military analysts questioned whether faulty intelligence led to strikes that killed hundreds of civilians, including children (Reuters)<\/p>\n