Pentagon Integrates Elon Musk's Chatbot 'Grok' Amid Global Controversies
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced an unprecedented initiative to integrate the AI-based chatbot "Grok", developed by Elon Musk, into the U.S. Department of Defense's (Pentagon) networks, which include both classified and unclassified systems.
Objective? To leverage AI for the analysis and processing of military data at an unprecedented scale.
Speaking from SpaceX's headquarters in South Texas, Hegseth stated, "We will soon have the leading AI models in every network of our department," highlighting the current administration's push to adopt modern technologies more rapidly than the previous administration under President Joe Biden, which had a more cautious approach to AI.
This announcement comes just days after widespread global criticism of "Grok" due to its ability to generate fake images (deepfakes) containing sexual content of individuals without their consent. Both Malaysia and Indonesia have taken steps to ban the chatbot, while the UK's Digital Safety Authority has launched an official investigation.
In response, "Grok" has limited the ability to generate and edit images to paying users only.
Hegseth confirmed that the chatbot will begin operations within the Pentagon later this month, with a commitment to provide "all appropriate data" from military IT systems for AI utilization, including data from intelligence databases.
This decisive shift underscores the differences between the current administration and the previous Biden administration, which had warned of the risks associated with AI in mass surveillance, cyberattacks, and lethal autonomous weapon systems, encouraging agencies to develop safe and thoughtful usage policies.
