US President Donald Trump’s administration turned to Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence tool Grok to launch strikes targeting Iran, news agency AFP reported, citing a US government legal briefing.

The June 15 government briefing defended the gas turbines used by the data centre at Musk’s company xAI, which are currently the subject of an environmental lawsuit.

The US Department of Justice asserted in the brief that the lawsuit “threatens American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War’s military operations.”

To back the argument, federal prosecutors cited sworn testimony from Pentagon AI chief Cameron Stanley, who stated that Grok is already being deployed within Project Maven—the US military’s AI-assisted targeting and intelligence analysis program.

Stanley’s statement emphasised that the project’s Maven Smart Systems (MSS) “enabled US forces to deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours during Operation Epic Fury.”

He hailed Musk’s technology and “the greatly increased operational efficiency made possible by the Grok Gov Model.”

The chatbot, he said, is also one of three products “equipped to support mission-critical operations” in top secret settings and is “currently capable of supporting national security applications.”

The NAACP filed a lawsuit against xAI, accusing the Musk-owned company of operating dozens of gas turbines without required permits and violating provisions of the Clean Air Act at its data centre facility.

The rights group said that they pollute the majority of Black neighbourhoods. However, the xAI has argued that the turbines are mobile and temporary, and therefore not subject to regulation.

At the end of February, the US government cancelled its contracts with AI safety and research company Anthropic after it refused to let its AI models be used for fully automated military strikes or mass surveillance of American citizens.

The Pentagon then shifted its focus to Anthropic’s top competitors, Google, OpenAI, and xAI.

At Google, over 600 employees demanded that the company reject military contracts for classified operations.