Pentagon to use Elon Musk’s Grok AI despite recent controversies

The Pentagon will begin using the Grok artificial intelligence chatbot, launched by billionaire Elon Musk’s startup xAI.

In a post on Musk’s social media platform X, xAI introduced Grok for Government, “a product suite that makes our frontier models available to US government customers.”

The deal is a significant step for Musk’s AI project. The South African-born tech billionaire is positioning his program as a direct competitor to OpenAI, which has also signed a deal in the defense and technology sector.

The contract, which has a ceiling of $200 million, details new project ideas, including custom models for national security and critical science applications, and specialized AI-powered applications to accelerate use cases in health, basic science, and national security.

On the other hand, Grok has recently been the target of criticism. The AI chatbot was accused of making “antisemitic” remarks last week, after which Musk announced that changes would be made to the program.

X stated that it removed these posts and that the problem was not related to the large language model underlying the chatbot.

The US Department of Defense did not comment directly but referred POLITICO to its public information website.

Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI have also received contracts from the Pentagon. The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) announced that contracts were awarded to leading US frontier AI companies to accelerate the adoption of advanced AI capabilities to “address critical national security challenges.”

The contracts awarded to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI, each with a ceiling of $200 million, will enable the Pentagon to “leverage the technology and talent of America’s leading AI companies to develop agentic AI workflows across a variety of mission areas.”

Meanwhile, the Grok deal comes as tensions between Trump and Musk continue. Musk, who is spending about $300 million to help elect Trump and other Republicans in 2024, publicly criticizes the former president over the national debt and budget from his administration.

Musk also accused Trump and the Department of Justice of withholding significant information related to Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison while facing charges of child abuse and trafficking. When Musk announced he would start his own third party, Trump said he had “gone off the rails.”