The Pentagon now has its own version of ChatGPT and Grok

The Pentagon now has its own version of ChatGPT and Grok | TechCrunch

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The Pentagon now has its own version of ChatGPT and Grok

The Pentagon has launched versions of OpenAIs ChatGPT and xAIs Grok, giving 3 million civilian and military personnel access to generative AI tools that have been tailored to warfighter needs.

ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government — custom versions of the popular consumer generative AI tools — are now part of GenAI.mil, a centralized, secure portal launched last year.

GenAI.mil, which offered Google Gemini when it first launched, is designed to give Department of Defense employees access to commercial frontier AI models without sending sensitive government data through ordinary consumer channels. In particular, the official military version is exempt from the data collection that is difficult to avoid in consumer tech products.

And according to the Department of Defense, the generative AI portal has proven popular. GenAI.mil has already onboarded more than 1.7 million unique users out of the departments 3 million personnel, according to the department.

These latest additions are part of the Pentagons broader effort to use AI tools to accelerate work and give the Department of Defense an edge without sacrificing security. They also highlight the absence of Anthropics Claude model and the Pentagons effort to work with other companies following its dispute with the frontier lab. Anthropic was labeled a supply-chain risk by the Trump administration — a designation that it is currently fighting in court — after it refused to give the Pentagon unrestricted use of its AI tools and instead insisted on certain safety guardrails.

ChatGPT Mil, which came out of the companys OpenAI for Government program, will offer an experience familiar to commercial ChatGPT users. The tool will focus on chat, files, projects, and custom GPTs, according to the Defense Department. The tool will also support document-heavy, routine unclassified work such as administrative tasks, logistics, planning, and policy. Other features will be added over time.

The Pentagon positioned Groks capabilities and potential uses in much broader and more militaristic terms.

Starshield AIs Grok for Government will provide the warfighter with immediate productivity gains, stronger knowledge continuity and more secure and efficient collaboration, according to the Defense Departments press release. (SpaceXs Starshield AI is a secure satellite network that uses the companys existing Starlink tech.)

The department added that Grok would allow its military to execute missions faster and with greater precision across numerous operational contexts, ranging from market research analysis for acquisition professionals to supply-chain management for logisticians.

The Pentagon has struck deals with a number of other tech companies in a bid to boost its AI capabilities, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Reflection AI.

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Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunchs Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, The Autonocast. She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.

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