The news came as part of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Arsenal of Freedom Tour, a whistlestop series of events to address workers in America’s defence industrial base.

The Grok rollout is part of a wider “AI acceleration strategy” that was also announced by Hegseth. This strategy will “unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, focus on investments, and demonstrate the execution approach needed to ensure we lead in military AI and that it grows more dominant into the future”.

Hegseth also said the DOD’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office will have “full authority” to enforce its data decrees and “make all appropriate data available across federated IT systems for AI exploitation, including mission systems across every service and component”.

The news comes as countries around the world expressed dismay at Grok, which is integrated into Musk’s X social media platform, over its apparent willingness to create sexually explicit, often violent images without the consent of the person depicted. The platform has now been banned in Indonesia and Malaysia, and the UK’s Office of Communications also expressed concerns over the ease with which X users can create “undressed images of people – which may amount to intimate image abuse or pornography – and sexualised images of children that may amount to child sexual abuse material”.

The European Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said the EU was already investigating Grok.

“X offering the use of Grok to create and share pictures of undressed women and children is horrendous,” Virkkunen said in a post to social media platform Mastodon.

“X now has to fix its AI tool in the EU – and they have to do it quickly. If not, we will not hesitate to take additional measures under the DSA.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also commented on Grok’s behaviour.

“The fact that this tool was used so that people were using its image creation function through Grok is, I think, just completely abhorrent,” Albanese recently said.

“It, once again, is an example of social media not showing social responsibility, and Australians and indeed, global citizens deserve better.”

The Pentagon inked a US$200 million deal with xAI in July 2025, just days after the chatbot shared several posts praising Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany during World War II. At the time, Musk said Grok was “too eager to please” and that the issues with its behaviour would be addressed.

The following September, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren addressed a letter to Hegseth expressing concern over the integration of Grok into defence networks.

“Although Musk is marketing Grok as an ‘unfiltered’ and ‘truth-seeking’ chatbot that does not subscribe to politically correct standards, reports indicate that the chatbot can also provide factually inaccurate information that could harm DOD’s strategic decision making,” Warren said.

The term “Arsenal of Freedom” is very likely based on a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode of the same name, which first aired in 1988. The episode’s name is a spoof of US President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Arsenal of Democracy speech, delivered in 1940 before the US entered World War II.

Hegseth flashed a “Vulcan salute” to the SpaceX crowd while Musk watched on.