The US Administration Approves the Use of "Grok" in Strikes Against Iran

SadaNews - The US administration has approved the use of the artificial intelligence tool "Grok" developed by "X.A.I.,” owned by billionaire Elon Musk, for strikes against Iran, according to a legal memo reviewed by the French press agency.

The memo, issued the day before yesterday, defends the gas turbines used in a massive data center belonging to "X.A.I.," which is facing an environmental lawsuit.

In the memo, the US Department of Justice claimed that the lawsuit "threatens American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to cut energy supplies from AI innovations that support the military operations of the Department of Defense."

To support this claim, federal prosecutors presented testimony from Cameron Stanley, head of the AI department at the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon).

Stanley testified under oath that "Grok" is already in use within the "Maven" project, the AI-targeting program of the US Army, which initially relied on the "Claude" model from "Anthropic."

Stanley’s statement indicated that the smart systems of the Maven project "enabled US forces to deploy over 2000 munitions on 2000 different targets in 96 hours during Operation Epic Fury." Stanley praised Musk's technology and the "significantly increased operational efficiency provided by the Grok model."

The Clean Air Act

The "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People," a civil rights organization defending the rights of Black Americans, is suing "X.A.I." accusing it of operating dozens of turbines without licenses, in violation of the Clean Air Act.

The civil rights organization claims that these turbines pollute predominantly Black neighborhoods, while "X.A.I." argues that the turbines are temporary and mobile, and thus not subject to regulation.

At the end of February, the government terminated its contracts with "Anthropic" after it refused to allow its tools to be used in fully automated strikes or in the mass surveillance of Americans.

The Pentagon then turned to competitors of "Anthropic," such as Google, OpenAI, and "X.A.I.," to continue its efforts in the field of artificial intelligence.

At Google, more than 600 employees demanded the company not to provide the military with AI for covert operations, while others expressed widespread concerns about the risks of AI.

In February, Elon Musk, a close ally of President Donald Trump, integrated "X.A.I." into his space exploration company "SpaceX," which conducted the largest IPO on June 12 of this year.

Source: France 24