U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced Monday the integration of Elon Musk’s xAI platform, Grok, into military networks as part of a sweeping “AI acceleration strategy,” declaring an end to outdated approaches amid intensifying global competition.
Speaking during a visit to a SpaceX facility in an event titled “Arsenal of Freedom Stop at SpaceX Facility,” Hegseth emphasized the urgency of rapid innovation in defense.
“In modern warfare, the fastest innovator and iterater will be the winner. And no one can out-innovate an American entrepreneur who has been liberated from constraints of stifling bureaucracy. That old era ends today,” Hegseth said.
“We are done running a peacetime science fair while our potential adversaries are running a wartime arms race.”
Hegseth unveiled the partnership with xAI as the next major step in the department’s GenAI.mil initiative.
“But today, we’re excited to announce the next frontier AI model company to join GenAI.mil, and that is Grok from xAI, which will go live later this month,” he said.
“So I want to thank you, Elon, and your incredible team for leaning forward with us on these as well. Very soon, we’ll have the world’s leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department—long overdue.”
The announcement aligns with Hegseth’s broader push for a “non-woke” military overhaul, prioritizing speed, lethality, and freedom from bureaucratic delays to counter advances by adversaries such as China and Russia.
He described the integration of advanced AI tools like Grok as essential to modernizing the Pentagon’s networks and ensuring U.S. forces maintain a decisive edge in emerging technologies.
