The Pentagon has launched customised versions of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and xAI’s Grok, giving roughly 3 million civilian and military personnel access to generative artificial intelligence tools designed around what the Department of Defense calls “warfighter needs”.
ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government are customised versions of the widely used consumer AI products. Both are now available through GenAI.mil, a centralised secure portal launched last year to provide Department of Defense employees with access to commercial frontier AI models without requiring sensitive government data to pass through ordinary consumer services.
GenAI.mil initially offered Google Gemini when it launched. The platform is designed specifically for government use, including protections intended to address concerns surrounding data collection associated with consumer technology products. The official military version is exempt from the data collection that can be difficult to avoid when using consumer AI tools.
The Pentagon says the portal has already attracted substantial interest. More than 1.7 million unique users out of the department’s 3 million personnel have been onboarded to GenAI.mil, according to the Department of Defense.
The expansion reflects a broader Pentagon effort to integrate artificial intelligence into government and military work while maintaining security. The latest deployments also come against the backdrop of the department’s dispute with Anthropic, whose Claude model is notably absent from the new AI rollout.
Anthropic was labelled a supply-chain risk by the Trump administration after the company refused to provide the Pentagon with unrestricted use of its AI tools and instead insisted on certain safety guardrails. The designation is currently being challenged by Anthropic in court. The Pentagon’s growing work with other technology companies highlights its effort to expand its AI capabilities beyond the company at the centre of that dispute.
ChatGPT Mil, developed through OpenAI’s OpenAI for Government programme, is intended to provide an experience familiar to users of commercial ChatGPT. According to the Defense Department, its functions will include chat, files, projects and custom GPTs.
The system is initially aimed at document-heavy and routine unclassified work, including administrative tasks, logistics, planning and policy. Additional features are expected to be introduced over time, extending the role of the system within the department.
The Pentagon has described Grok’s potential role in more explicitly operational terms. According to the department, Starshield AI’s Grok for Government will provide military personnel with “immediate productivity gains, stronger knowledge continuity and more secure and efficient collaboration”.
SpaceX’s Starshield AI is a secure satellite network that uses the company’s existing Starlink technology. The Department of Defense said Grok could enable the military to execute missions faster and with greater precision across a range of operational contexts.
Those uses could extend from market research analysis for acquisition professionals to supply-chain management for logisticians, according to the department.
The deployment of ChatGPT Mil and Grok for Government forms part of a wider Pentagon push to increase its access to advanced artificial intelligence. The department has already struck agreements with other technology companies, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Nvidia and Reflection AI, as it seeks to strengthen its AI capabilities across its operations.
With more than half of its personnel already onboarded to GenAI.mil, the Pentagon’s latest move places commercial generative AI tools increasingly close to the centre of its effort to modernise military and administrative work while keeping government data within more secure systems.
