America’s top defence official declared that the US must achieve unquestioned AI “dominance” to prevent adversaries from gaining a technological edge, as he unveiled a strategy that includes integrating Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok.
Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth’s announcement did not mention China by name, but it came a month after a report to the US Congress in which the Pentagon warned of Beijing’s accelerating use of AI to reach its military modernisation goals.
On Monday, Hegseth said the “old era” of “stifling bureaucracy” hindering American entrepreneurs would “end today” and that US warfighters must be immediately equipped with “overwhelming and lethal technology” in modern warfare.
Advertisement
He delivered his remarks in a speech at Musk’s SpaceX Starbase in Texas, the primary production and testing hub for the company’s Starship launch vehicles.
Hegseth said the US was “done running a peacetime science fair while our potential adversaries are running a wartime arms race”.
Advertisement
