US Government Admits Using Elon Musk’s AI Tool To Plan Military Strikes On Iran In AI-Powered Warfare
US Government Admits Using Elon Musk’s AI Tool To Plan Military Strikes On Iran In AI-Powered Warfare
The disclosure was made in a sworn legal declaration by Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, who said Grok was integrated into the military’s Project Maven Smart Systems during ‘Operation Epic Fury’, a major military campaign targeting Iran.
The United States Department of Defense has confirmed that it used Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence platform, Grok, to assist in planning and executing military strikes against Iran, marking one of the first official acknowledgements of a commercial AI system being deployed in lethal military operations.
The disclosure was made in a sworn legal declaration by Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, who said Grok was integrated into the military’s Project Maven Smart Systems during ‘Operation Epic Fury’, a major military campaign targeting Iran.
Stanley revealed that the AI-powered system enabled American forces to identify, prioritise and strike more than 2,000 targets within a 96-hour period.
The revelation emerged in a United States Department of Justice court filing defending the operations of xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company, against a lawsuit filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) over alleged environmental violations linked to one of its data centres in Mississippi.
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“MSS frontier workflows enabled US forces to deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours during Operation Epic Fury,” he said, adding that xAI is one of just three enterprise providers able to sustain “mission-critical operations” across Secret and Top-Secret classified networks. He warned that if xAI’s Colossus 2 facility is shut down or deprived of power, the Pentagon’s capabilities would be impaired.
The US government argued that shutting down the facility would negatively affect national security because of its role in supporting critical military operations.
Stanley praised what he described as the “greatly increased operational efficiency” achieved through the use of the Grok Gov Model, adding that the platform is now among a select group of AI systems deemed capable of supporting top-secret national security missions.
The Pentagon reportedly turned to xAI and other technology providers after ending its partnership with AI company Anthropic in February 2026. Anthropic had refused to permit the use of its artificial intelligence systems for fully automated military strikes or mass surveillance operations involving American citizens.
The disclosure has reignited concerns among human rights organisations, technology experts and civil liberties advocates over the increasing use of artificial intelligence in warfare.
Critics argue that delegating elements of targeting and battlefield decision-making to AI systems could increase the risk of civilian casualties while reducing accountability when mistakes occur.
Those fears have been amplified by reports from Yahoo News indicating that American military investigators believe an AI-assisted targeting process may have contributed to a strike on a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, that reportedly killed at least 175 people, most of them children.
Although the Pentagon has not publicly accepted responsibility for the incident, the report has intensified scrutiny of the role AI is playing in modern military campaigns.
The Department of Defense has meanwhile unveiled what it describes as an “Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Strategy” aimed at transforming the United States into the world’s most advanced AI-enabled fighting force.
The initiative includes expanded military access to frontier AI models such as Grok and Google’s Gemini for defence and intelligence operations.
The development comes at a time when concerns about military AI are growing worldwide.
More than 600 Google employees recently signed a petition urging the company not to provide artificial intelligence technologies for classified military operations, citing ethical concerns over autonomous warfare and civilian protection.
The debate also carries implications for countries such as Nigeria, which continue to battle insurgency, banditry and terrorism.
For years, Nigerian security agencies have explored the use of advanced technologies, including drones, satellite imagery, facial recognition systems and data analytics, in operations against Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and armed bandit groups operating across parts of the country.
Security experts say artificial intelligence could significantly enhance intelligence gathering, surveillance, target identification and threat prediction in Nigeria’s fight against terrorism.
However, they warn that weak regulatory frameworks, concerns about human rights abuses and the absence of robust oversight mechanisms could create significant risks if AI-powered military technologies are adopted without clear accountability safeguards.
The Pentagon’s admission is likely to deepen global discussions about whether artificial intelligence should play a direct role in deciding who lives and who dies on the battlefield, as governments increasingly integrate emerging technologies into modern warfare.
