The Pentagon is now armed to the teeth with “cutting-edge AI systems, based on the Grok family of models,” according to a report. press release published Monday. Are you shaking now, ISIS? Does the word “Grok” send shivers down your spine, Tren De Aragua?
This expansion of what the release calls America’s “AI Arsenal” is apparently integrated with the Pentagon’s broader AI platform called “GenAI.mil,” launched earlier this month with Google’s Gemini for Government, according to a report. previous press release. US “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth apparently provided the following quote for this release: “AI tools present limitless opportunities to increase effectiveness, and we are excited to witness the future positive impact of AI within the War Department. » Hegseth’s quote strangely appears to have been written by a 22-year-old graduate of Stanford’s public relations program.
While the Israeli armed forces seem to have used AI against Gaza in a terrifyingly murderous way, GenAI.mil sounds much more Dilbert-ish. If you were worried that the Pentagon’s Aeron chair jockeys would be forced to use Gemini for government, I have great news: They will also, when the software is implemented “in early 2026,” have exciting new AI products from a company owned by Elon Musk, which will enable “secure management of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in daily workflows,” as well as “access to real-time global information from the X platform, providing War Department personnel with decisive information. advantage. »
A Trump’s April Executive Order sought to revolutionize efficiency at the Pentagon by ordering reviews with goals such as “eliminating or revising any unnecessary additional regulations or other internal directives” – the standard Republican idea that anything can be made better by cutting red tape. Regardless, the Army’s “tailored AI platform” will now include a second set of models to apply to everyone’s AI-intensive tasks. very effective there.
But even though the Trump administration has been unusually friendly towards the whims of AI cheerleadersthere is bipartisan precedent for this sort of thing. For example, the involvement of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt in a Biden era effort “significantly increasing” AI-related spending in the federal government’s defense and security programs was characterized by Senator Elizabeth Warren as potential conflict of interest. And xAI and Google are far from being the only technology companies seeking to associate their interests with those of the defense industry.
But it’s currently hard to imagine Grok as a crucial link in the “chain of death” or anything like that. This sounds more like a Department of Defense press release about a new toner supplier, with a bit of Dot-Com Bubble flavor. It’s as if the Pentagon announced that every office in the Pentagon, currently equipped only with CompuServe, will now also receive its own AOL CD-ROM. Very cool. Thanks for telling us, Secretary Hegseth.
