The Pentagon wants to make greater use of artificial intelligence and has signed multi-million-dollar contracts with major US technology companies. The goal is to expand the use of AI "to overcome core security policy challenges," the US Department of Defense announced on Monday (local time). The contracts went to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and Elon Musk's xAI, each with a ceiling of $200 million (€171 million).
"The adoption of AI is changing the Department's ability to support our military and maintain a strategic advantage over our adversaries," said Doug Matty, the Pentagon's head of digital technologies and AI. No further details were initially provided. US President Donald Trump had focused on artificial intelligence since the start of his second term and, among other things, relaxed regulations imposed by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Competition among AI companies is fierce: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Monday that his company would invest "hundreds of billions of dollars" in AI. They want to create huge data centers. A first new facility, called Prometheus, will be connected to the network in 2026, he announced. Zuckerberg wants to be at the forefront of AI and compete with ChatGPT developer OpenAI, among others.
According to media reports, he is dissatisfied with the pace at which Meta is progressing in developing powerful AI. More recently, the company spent a lot of money to attract experts in the industry. Elon Musk's xAI also wants to spend many billions of dollars on data centers. xAI is developing the AI chatbot Grok, with which users can talk about the X platform, which also belongs to the tech billionaire, among other things.
Grok had recently caused a scandal with antisemitic statements. After strong criticism, xAI attributed this to a botched update and apologized. However, the incident highlights the risks associated with the rapid introduction of new technologies in the race for artificial intelligence, the Washington Post wrote. Musk was a close advisor to Trump until recently. However, in the dispute over US budget policy, the two had fallen out. The tech billionaire's company also announced on Monday a line of products called "Grok for Government," which can be used by government authorities and agencies, among others, for their respective tasks.
