Week of 1/16/25 Industry News
Dylan Black, Editor
Contact: dylan.black@andersen.com
Pentagon aims to redefine tech-sector relations with new AI strategy
By Charlie Mitchell | Inside US Trade | January 13, 2026
The Pentagon has unveiled an ambitious AI Acceleration Strategy aligned with President Trump’s AI executive order, signaling a shift to an “AI-first” wartime posture that tightly integrates commercial technology into defense operations. The plan prioritizes rapid deployment, expanded AI compute infrastructure, faster access to frontier models within 30 days of public release, and deeper collaboration with U.S. tech firms, while refocusing the Chief Digital and AI Office to remove bureaucratic barriers and scale adoption across warfighting, intelligence, and enterprise missions. Flagship initiatives include GenAI.mil, which would put leading AI models in the hands of millions of civilian and military personnel, and the rollout of secure enterprise AI agents to transform internal workflows. Backed by new congressional funding and partnerships with allies, the strategy frames AI dominance as a race defined by speed and execution, with industry leaders praising the approach as a necessary pivot to keep the U.S. ahead of adversaries in an era of accelerating AI-driven warfare.
Musk’s AI tool Grok will be integrated into Pentagon networks, Hegseth says
By Anna Betts | The Guardian | January 13, 2026
The Pentagon will begin integrating Elon Musk’s AI model Grok into U.S. military networks later this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, marking a major step in the department’s push to rapidly deploy commercial AI tools across both classified and unclassified systems. Announcing the move alongside a new AI acceleration strategy, Hegseth said the Defense Department aims to remove bureaucratic barriers, expand access to data, and ensure warfighters can use leading AI models at speed. The decision follows earlier selections of Google’s Gemini for the GenAI.mil platform and contracts worth up to $200 million awarded to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI. Grok’s inclusion comes amid controversy, however, as the tool has faced global scrutiny over the generation of sexual, violent, and extremist imagery, prompting investigations and temporary bans abroad even as the U.S. military presses ahead with broader AI adoption.
How AI Companies Got Caught Up in US Military Efforts
By Nick Srnicek | WIRED | January 2026
After years of publicly opposing military use of their technologies, leading AI companies including OpenAI, Meta, Google, and Anthropic have rapidly reversed course, embracing partnerships with the U.S. defense establishment as geopolitical competition with China intensifies and AI costs explode. Over the past year, firms rescinded bans on military applications, revised AI principles, and signed contracts with the Pentagon and defense startups, normalizing AI’s role in warfare. The shift reflects the collapse of the long-standing “Silicon Valley Consensus,” which favored globalization, minimal regulation, and distance from national security, and its replacement with a tech–state alignment driven by techno-nationalism. As defense budgets, export controls, and great-power rivalry reshape incentives, AI companies are increasingly woven into a new military–industrial complex—one defined by speed, scale, and geopolitical urgency rather than ethical restraint—raising profound questions about power, accountability, and the future of global technology governance.
Pentagon embraces Musk’s Grok AI chatbot as it draws global outcry
By Konstantin Toropin and David Klepper | Associated Press | January 13, 2026
The Pentagon will integrate Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok into its classified and unclassified networks later this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, as part of an aggressive push to feed vast amounts of military and intelligence data into AI systems to accelerate innovation. The move comes amid international backlash over Grok’s generation of sexualized deepfake images and past antisemitic content, prompting Malaysia and Indonesia to block the tool and triggering a U.K. investigation. Hegseth framed the strategy as essential to maintaining military dominance, pledging to unlock decades of “combat-proven” data and rejecting what he called ideological limits on lawful military use, declaring Pentagon AI “will not be woke.” The approach marks a sharp contrast with the Biden administration’s more cautious framework, which expanded AI use while restricting applications that could violate civil rights or automate nuclear weapons—protections whose status under the Trump administration remains unclear.
How artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of war
By Jackie Koppell | NewsNation | January 11, 2026
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming U.S. military operations, from logistics and command decisions to drones, autonomous vehicles, and naval systems, as the Defense Department rolls out platforms like GenAI.mil to millions of civilian and military personnel and partners with firms including Google and xAI. On the battlefield, AI is speeding decision-making from hours or days to minutes and seconds, reducing cognitive load on commanders, improving targeting accuracy, and enabling coordinated swarms of drones and unmanned systems, while humans retain final authority over lethal actions. The shift favors many smaller, cheaper autonomous platforms over fewer crewed, high-cost assets, potentially lowering risks to U.S. forces but raising concerns about civilian harm, system failures, and electronic interference. With China seen as the fiercest competitor—especially in drone manufacturing scale and access to rare earths—the U.S. is racing to expand industrial capacity and AI-enabled warfare, betting that speed and precision will deter conflict even as experts warn it could make future wars more destructive and economically costly.