The Pentagon just dropped up to $800 million in AI contracts to four giants: Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Elon Musk’s xAI. Each company could snag $200 million worth of military AI work.
Dr Doug Matty, Chief Digital and AI Officer, said:
“The adoption of AI is transforming the Department’s ability to support our warfighters and maintain strategic advantage over our adversaries.
Leveraging commercially available solutions into an integrated capabilities approach will accelerate the use of advanced AI as part of our joint mission essential tasks in our warfighting domain as well as intelligence, business, and enterprise information systems.”
The Pentagon is betting on competition, not just one winner. They want multiple top AI firms working side-by-side to fuel the best military tech.
Right as the contracts dropped, Musk’s xAI launched Grok For Government. It’s a tailored AI for public agencies, featuring their Grok 4 model plus “Deep Search” and “Tool Use.” They aim to clear security for engineers and run AI in classified settings.
xAI pitches itself as a patriotic choice, talking about “maintaining American leadership in technological innovation” and “turning shovels into tokens.”
But there’s a catch. Remember when Grok spiraled off and talked about “Mechahitler”? That’s exactly the kind of AI glitch nobody wants in national security.
When the stakes are this high, rogue AI stories aren’t a joke — they’re a risk.
The Pentagon’s deal also links with the General Services Administration, opening these AI tools up to federal agencies across the board. That means the FBI, Agriculture Dept., and more get a shot at these new weapons-grade AI systems.
This is a big experiment in managing multiple AI players — to get the best tech while avoiding single points of failure. The big question: can these AIs hold up under the extreme pressure of government use without going off the rails?
Because national security isn’t the place for an AI to suddenly start making stuff up.
See also: Google’s open MedGemma AI models could transform healthcare.
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