Pentagon used Musk’s Grok AI to fire thousands of missiles at Iran, court filing says

Defence affairs - Def-Geopolitics

Sworn testimony says xAI’s government AI model supported thousands of munitions in 96 hours, fueling new concern in Congress over military use of artificial intelligence

The Trump administration used a special version of Elon Musk’s Grok artificial intelligence chatbot to help launch thousands of missiles at Iran, the U.S. Department of War said in an official statement.

Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, disclosed the use in sworn testimony in a Mississippi court. The testimony came in a lawsuit against Musk alleging that a data center operated by his AI company, xAI, uses dozens of gas turbines that cause pollution and endanger nearby residents.

The lawsuit was filed by the NAACP, one of the oldest and most influential civil rights organizations in the United States.

Stanley testified that continued operation of the chatbot, which is supported in part by the data center, is a matter of “paramount national security.” He said it helped fire more than 2,000 munitions at thousands of targets within 96 hours.

The testimony marked the first explicit acknowledgment by a senior U.S. official that the military used an AI-based chatbot in strikes on Iran.

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Stanley said the Mississippi data center, along with others, is positioned to provide a “critical surge” in energy capacity in the event of a conflict or other urgent circumstances affecting national security.

He said Grok, developed by xAI, is among four AI models currently capable of supporting national security applications and one of three products ready to support mission-critical operations in highly classified environments.

According to the filing, any court ruling barring deployment of the model would “severely” affect the Pentagon. Stanley wrote that data centers powering AI products for government use are a long-term strategic tool essential to maintaining the U.S. technological edge over adversaries.

Following the testimony, U.S. media revisited reports from the start of the Iran war that American forces were responsible for a strike on a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, that killed at least 175 people, the deadliest incident for civilians during the war.

Analysts have said the strike was likely caused by a combination of AI-driven targeting and human error, including a failure to verify whether maps were up to date.