Pentagon-xAI deal: Musk-owned AI baggage $200 million defence contract; days after Grok chatbot’s anti-Semitic row
The Pentagon has awarded contracts to a number of main US synthetic intelligence corporations, together with Elon Musk’s xAI, regardless of the corporate coming underneath fireplace not too long ago for offensive content material generated by its chatbot Grok.Introduced on Monday, the contracts with xAI, Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI every carry a ceiling worth of $200 million, in keeping with the Pentagon’s chief digital and synthetic intelligence workplace (CDAO).The awards goal to permit the division of protection “to leverage the expertise and expertise of US frontier AI corporations to develop agentic AI workflows throughout a wide range of mission areas,” the CDAO stated in a press release, quoted by AFP.xAI’s inclusion follows renewed criticism of the corporate over Grok’s controversial responses, which surfaced after a July 7 replace. The chatbot had praised Adolf Hitler, condemned “anti-white hate,” and claimed Jewish illustration in Hollywood was “disproportionate.” xAI has since apologised and stated it corrected the directions that led to these outputs.The most recent model, Grok 4, launched on Wednesday, additionally drew scrutiny after showing to reflect Elon Musk’s views in a few of its responses.The contract award comes even asMusk stays locked in a public spat with US President Donald Trump. Although Musk had been a key supporter of Trump’s current presidential marketing campaign and was tasked with main the cost-cutting company Doge, he stepped down in Might. He later criticised Trump’s main price range invoice, accusing it of inflating authorities debt, prompting a collection of heated public and social media exchanges. Musk finally apologised for a few of his extra aggressive remarks.Regardless of the stress, the federal government and defence sector is being seen as a promising new frontier for AI corporations.xAI, on Monday, introduced the launch of its “Grok for Authorities” service, following the same initiative from OpenAI. With its identify now added to an official provider checklist, xAI stated all federal departments and companies can now procure its merchandise.Elsewhere, Meta has teamed up with defence start-up Anduril to develop digital actuality headsets for navy and police use.OpenAI had already secured a Pentagon deal in June, additionally capped at $200 million.“Establishing these partnerships will broaden DoD use of and expertise in frontier AI capabilities and enhance the flexibility of those corporations to know and tackle essential nationwide safety wants with essentially the most superior AI capabilities US trade has to supply,” the CDAO stated.
