Days after DOJ sided with Elon Musk’s AI company xAI in datacenter pollution case; Pentagon’s AI chief declares in court that DoW replaced Anthropic Claude with Grok AI to …
Publish Date: 2026-06-19 08:26:00
Source Domain: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
- Department of Justice (DoJ) intervened in a lawsuit brought by NAACP, challenging Elon Musk’s AI company xAI for alleged Clean Air Act violations at their Mississippi data center.
- The NAACP alleged that xAI and its subsidiary MZX Tech were operating gas turbines without a required air permit.
- In defense, Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, Cameron Stanley, testified that xAI’s Grok model is integrated in the U.S. military’s AI-assisted targeting program Project Maven.
- Stanley’s testimony emphasized Grok’s role in national security, highlighting its use in firing over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours.
- The lawsuit asserts that xAI’s data center, powered by the gas turbines in question, is vital for the Department of Defense’s operations and its Grok Gov Model which supports various national security missions.
- Stanley warned that shutting down the data center or limiting its operations could severely impair national security by reducing the resources necessary to develop and maintain critical AI models.
- The argument underscores the intertwined nature of modern defense operations with AI capabilities and the necessity of robust commercial infrastructure and energy supply to sustain these.
- The lawsuit highlights the potential broader implications for U.S. military strategy and technological edge if xAI’s operations were significantly hindered.
