Senate

Warren demands information on xAI access to classified Pentagon networks

by Filip Timotija - 03/16/26 2:26 PM ET

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is demanding more information from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on xAI’s access to Pentagon classified networks. She also asked him to address worries that the company’s chatbot, Grok, could pose reliability concerns for the U.S. military.

Warren, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a Sunday letter that she was concerned that Grok could present safety risks to armed forces, citing the possibility of the chatbot leaking classified information.

“Were Grok to leak government information, this could reveal sensitive military plans, U.S. intelligence efforts, and potentially put service members in danger,” she wrote the four-page letter. “It is unclear what assurances or documentation xAI has provided to the Department of Defense about Grok’s security safeguards, data-handling practices, or safety controls, and whether DoD has evaluated those assurances before reportedly allowing Grok access to classified systems.”

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the Department of Defense (DOD) said no one single prompt is used “to define the operational capability and wanting to work with the government.”

“xAI’s Grok remains a competitive frontier model — no media spin can change that. The Department is excited to have xAI, one of America’s national champion frontier AI companies onboard and looks forward to deploying Grok to its official AI platform GenAI.mil in the very near future,” he said.

DOD and xAI struck a deal last month to bring its AI models to the military’s classified systems, an agreement that came as the Pentagon was publicly feuding with Anthropic, which demanded that Claude, its AI model, not be used in firing autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance.

Warren, in her letter, asked for a full copy of the agreement between xAI and the Pentagon.

Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that officials in multiple government agencies, including the National Security Agency and General Services Administration, raised concerns over Grok’s safety and reliability.

Musk’s xAI got a nearly $200 million Pentagon contract last July to develop an AI application for the DOD.

“What, if any, safeguards are in place, both in the agreement and within the Department writ large, to ensure that Grok is not exposed to cyberattacks, including data poisoning attacks, that could compromise its outputs,” Warren asked in the letter.

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