{"id":232279,"date":"2026-01-14T06:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T06:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/232279\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T06:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T06:52:12","slug":"pentagon-embraces-musks-grok-ai-despite-global-outcry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/232279\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon embraces Musk’s Grok AI despite global outcry"},"content":{"rendered":"

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says Elon Musk\u2019s chatbot Grok will join Google\u2019s generative AI engine in operating inside the Pentagon network, as part of a broader push to feed as much of the military’s data as possible into the developing technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery soon we will have the world\u2019s leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department,\u201d Hegseth said in a speech at Musk\u2019s space flight company, SpaceX, in South Texas.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes just days after Grok \u2013 embedded into X, the social media network owned by Musk \u2013 drew global outcry and scrutiny for generating highly sexualised deepfake images of people without their consent.<\/p>\n

Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked Grok<\/a>, while the UK\u2019s independent online safety watchdog announced an investigation. <\/p>\n

\"AI<\/p>\n

AI apps on a phone screen (file image). (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n

Grok has limited image generation and editing to paying users<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hegseth said Grok will go live inside the Defence Department later this month and announced that he would \u201cmake all appropriate data\u201d from the military\u2019s IT systems available for “AI exploitation”. <\/p>\n

He also said data from intelligence databases would be fed into AI systems.<\/p>\n

Hegseth\u2019s aggressive push to embrace the still-developing technology stands in contrast to the Biden administration, which, while pushing federal agencies to come up with policies and uses for AI, was also wary of misuse. <\/p>\n

American officials said rules were needed to ensure that the technology, which could be harnessed for mass surveillance, cyberattacks or even lethal autonomous devices, was being used responsibly.<\/p>\n

\"Elon<\/p>\n

Elon Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

The Biden administration enacted a framework in late 2024 that directed national security agencies to expand their use of the most advanced AI systems but prohibited certain uses, such as applications that would violate constitutionally-protected civil rights or any system that would automate the deployment of nuclear weapons. <\/p>\n

It is unclear if those prohibitions are still in place under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

During his speech, Hegseth spoke of the need to streamline and speed up technological innovations within the military, saying: “We need innovation to come from anywhere and evolve with speed and purpose.”<\/p>\n

He noted that the Pentagon possesses “combat-proven operational data from two decades of military and intelligence operations”.<\/p>\n

AI chipmaker Nvidia has defied forecasts with a 65% surge in profit, easing some fears of a bubble about to burst.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“AI is only as good as the data that it receives, and we\u2019re going to make sure that it\u2019s there,” Hegseth said.<\/p>\n

The defence secretary said he wanted AI systems within the Pentagon to be responsible, although he went on to say he was shrugging off any AI models “that won\u2019t allow you to fight wars”.<\/p>\n

Hegseth said his vision for military AI systems meant they operate “without ideological constraints that limit lawful military applications”, before adding that the Pentagon’s “AI will not be woke”.<\/p>\n

Musk developed and pitched Grok as an alternative to what he called “woke AI” interactions from rival chatbots like Google\u2019s Gemini or OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT. <\/p>\n

In July, Grok also caused controversy after it appeared to make antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler and shared several antisemitic posts.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions about the issues with Grok.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says Elon Musk\u2019s chatbot Grok will join Google\u2019s generative AI engine in operating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,64,69,145],"class_list":["post-232279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north-america","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}