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US senator raises concerns over xAI classified access
US Senator Elizabeth Warren has sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asking how the Pentagon plans to mitigate risks after reports it granted Elon Musk’s AI company xAI access to classified networks.
In the letter, Warren said Grok had generated harmful and illegal content in past user tests.
A coalition of nonprofits has urged the government to suspend Grok’s deployment in federal agencies after users prompted it to sexualize real photos of women and, in some cases, children without their consent.
A class action lawsuit also accused Grok of generating sexualized content from users’ images.
The DoD signed an agreement with OpenAI and xAI to use their systems in classified networks after Anthropic was labeled a supply chain risk.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, said the department plans to deploy Grok to its official AI platform GenAI.mil in the very near future.
Warren requested details of the xAI agreement and safeguards for classified data.
🔗 Source: TechCrunch
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
The Pentagon move follows other federal buying efforts that stepped back from Grok
- The Department of Defense (DoD) is onboarding Grok, yet another federal procurement effort already flagged it as too risky.
- In mid-2025, the General Services Administration (GSA) dropped xAI from a planned federal AI partnership announcement after Grok generated antisemitic content and praised Adolf Hitler 1.
- In late 2025 and early 2026, investigations found Grok produced an estimated 3 million sexualized images in 11 days, including an estimated 23,000 that appeared to depict children 2.
- Regulators responded with a cease and desist letter from California’s Attorney General plus formal action across multiple jurisdictions, including the UK and the European Union 3, 4.
The Pentagon AI drive can make controversial vendors harder to drop
- The DoD says it wants to tap U.S. frontier AI companies to keep a “strategic advantage” 5.
- The $200 million contract gives xAI added standing, placing it alongside Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google as a defense AI vendor despite public disputes around Grok 5.
- That stamp of approval can dull commercial blowback.
- Visa and Stripe have previously moved quickly against sites over sexually explicit content, yet have not acted against X/xAI despite reporting on Grok-generated sexualized images, including some that may be illegal 6.
- A Pentagon partnership could further reduce pressure on the company, creating a precedent where strategic value outweighs safety and reputational failures.
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